Podcasts about creoles

 Part 2 of our interview with Shannon Eaves. "Her book, Sexual Violence and American Slavery: The Making of a Rape Culture in the Antebellum South, was published by UNC Press in 2024. This study examines how the rape and sexual exploitation of enslaved women created a rape culture that was woven into the very fabric of antebellum society, influencing daily life for both the enslaved and enslavers....Shannon earned her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and currently serves as an Associate Professor of African American History here at the College of Charleston. She is a specialist in 19th century U.S. History, African American History, and Slavery and Gender in the Antebellum South" (Faculty page).  "It is impossible to separate histories of sexual violence and the enslavement of Black women in the antebellum South. Rape permeated the lives of all who existed in that system: Black and white, male and female, adult and child, enslaved and free. Shannon C. Eaves unflinchingly investigates how both enslaved people and their enslavers experienced the systematic rape and sexual exploitation of bondswomen and came to understand what this culture of sexualized violence meant for themselves and others. Eaves mines a wealth of primary sources including autobiographies, diaries, court records, and more to show that rape and other forms of sexual exploitation entangled slaves and slave owners in battles over power to protect oneself and one's community, power to avenge hurt and humiliation, and power to punish and eliminate future threats" (UNC Press). Now available: Liberty in Louisiana: A Comedy. The oldest play about Louisiana, author James Workman wrote it as a celebration of the Louisiana Purchase. Now it is back in print for the first time in 221 years. Order your copy today! This week in Louisiana history. March 22, 1976. Reese Witherspoon is from New Orleans and is best known for her role in Legally Blonde and Walk the Line. This week in New Orleans history. Maximilian Ferdinand Bonzano, physician, minter, administrator. Born, Ebingen, Germany, March 22, 1821, arrived in New Orleans, 1835, working first in a printing office as a roller boy and then as printer, which provided opportunity to master the English language. Morally opposed to slavery. Also opposed secession and refused to serve the Confederacy. He was elected from his district as a delegate to the state's 1864 constitutional convention, where he chaired the committee on emancipation and personally wrote the ordinance which freed Louisiana's slaves. He lived in the mansion which had served as the headquarters of Gen. Andrew Jackson. This week in Louisiana. Cane River Creole National Park The Texas and Pacific Railway Depot Oakland and Magnolia Plantations 9:00 am - 3:00 pm daily Natchez, LA Website The Cane River region is home to a unique culture; the Creoles. Generations of the same families of workers, enslaved and tenant, and owners lived on these lands for over 200 years. The park tells their stories and preserves the cultural landscape of Oakland and Magnolia Plantations, two of the most intact Creole cotton plantations in the United States.     The hours of operation for Oakland Plantation and Magnolia Plantation are 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The plantation grounds, trails, outbuildings, and visitor restrooms are open daily. Guided tours are available Wednesday through Sunday at both sites. The park store, located in the historic Oakland Plantation Store is also open Wednesday through Sunday. The Oakland Plantation Main House is only open on Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. for self-guided tours. The park does not offer visitors services, such as guided tours and shopping at the park store on Mondays and Tuesdays.     The Texas and Pacific Railway Depot in Natchitoches serves as the park visitor center. The depot is open Wednesday through Sunday from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.    The park is open daily year-round with the exception of ALL federal holidays. Postcards from Louisiana. Medicare String Band in Natchitoches.  Listen on Apple Podcasts. Listen on audible. Listen on Spotify. Listen on TuneIn. Listen on iHeartRadio. The Louisiana Anthology Home Page. Like us on Facebook. 

Super Bowl mess. Army ad! Halt penny production! Messi's bodyguard. Skol! Lyme disease, hmm. Maxine Waters. Trump: False accusers, false convictions?The Hake Report, Monday, February 10, 2025 ADTIMESTAMPS* (0:00:00) Start: Super Bowl* (0:02:02) Super Bowl, other stuff* (0:04:07) France is not competitive in AI* (0:07:38) Hey, guys! Mexican Monday, kids* (0:09:33) WILL, Australia: French, Anger stupidity* (0:13:29) WILLIAM, CA: Super Bowl review* (0:18:59) WILLIAM: Mexican gal threatened police* (0:20:22) WILLIAM: Greggatron* (0:21:23) WILLIAM: Maxine Waters* (0:23:53) WILLIAM: Booed T Swift, Trump cheered … France* (0:27:37) US Army is back* (0:32:50) Shrew dangerous* (0:34:06) Penny production halted* (0:39:47) Messi's bodyguard* (0:47:21) Skol, Norseman for cheers — or skål* (0:52:44) Lyme disease* (1:00:03) STEPHEN, MD: Negro National Anthem, Creoles* (1:13:39) WILLIAM 7, CA: Lyme disease, others* (1:19:26) WILLIAM: Super Bowl drama, insurance commercials* (1:23:19) Coffee: Maxine Waters* (1:31:13) Popcorn: Trump is not guilty!* (1:40:54) JOHN, KY: Trump, Popcorn Sutton* (1:43:45) JOHN: Cincinnati white nationalists; Trump bandwagon?* (1:49:41) JOHN: Slavery a good thing? They not your friends!* (1:50:16) Grupo Mojado - "Tonta"LINKSBLOG https://www.thehakereport.com/blog/2025/2/10/the-hake-report-mon-2-10-25PODCAST / Substack HAKE NEWS from JLP https://www.thehakereport.com/jlp-news/2025/2/10/hake-news-mon-2-10-25Hake is live M-F 9-11a PT (11-1CT/12-2ET) Call-in 1-888-775-3773 https://www.thehakereport.com/showVIDEO YouTube - Rumble* - Facebook - X - BitChute - Odysee*PODCAST Substack - Apple - Spotify - Castbox - Podcast Addict*SUPER CHAT on platforms* above or BuyMeACoffee, etc.SHOP - Printify (new!) - Spring (old!) - Cameo | All My LinksJLP Network: JLP - Church - TFS - Nick - Joel - Punchie Get full access to HAKE at thehakereport.substack.com/subscribe

Scientific Sense ® by Gill Eapen: Prof. Salikoko Mufwene is professor of linguistics at the University of Chicago. His research interests include Evolutionary Linguistics (including the emergence of Creoles, the Indigenization of European Colonial Languages, Language Vitality), Bantu Linguistics, Language Contact in Africa and the Caribbean Please subscribe to this channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/ScientificSense?sub_confirmation=1 --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scientificsense/support

594. Part 2 of our interview with Nick Douglas about  New Orleans jazz and civil rights. “I am working with my filmmaking partner Doug Harris on a documentary called the Reconnect: The Untold History of Jazz. It is a true story about the actual formation of jazz in the only place it could have formed: New Orleans. But it is more it identifies for the first time New Orleans as the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement. It shows how jazz and jazz musicians used jazz and musical performances to fund and support the civil rights movement long before most people realize the movement started. It answers questions about jazz and the civil rights movement that have never been exposed. Enjoy and if you like what we are doing share the video and donate to get this project completed.” Nick Douglas is the author of “Finding Octave: The Untold History of Two Creole Families and Slavery in Louisiana.” Nick is an MBA with a background in international business. Born in Oakland, California, Nick grew up in a multi-generational Creole home. As a child he had a close connection to his grandmother and great-grandmother, who were both Creoles from New Orleans. Now available: Liberty in Louisiana: A Comedy. The oldest play about Louisiana, author James Workman wrote it as a celebration of the Louisiana Purchase. Now it is back in print for the first time in 220 years. Order your copy today! This week in Louisiana history. October 6, 1860. John Slidell publishes his address to people of LA. "Let every man go to polls...we may soon be called under a common flag against a common enemy" This week in New Orleans history. October 5th marks the annual Feast Day of 5 Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, who was assigned, in 1866, to the Redemptorist community in New Orleans.  He also served as pastor of St. Mary of the Assumption parish. He died after contracting yellow fever, on October 4, 1867, at the age of 48 years and 9 months.  Pope John Paul II beatified Father Seelos in St. Peter's Square on April 9, 2000.The National Shrine of Blessed Francis Seelos, C.Ss.R is located at St. Mary's Assumption Church. This week in Louisiana. Gothic Jail After Dark Haunted Attraction October 11-31, 2024 205 W 1st St. DeRidder LA 70634 October features a Haunted House like none other this Halloween season! Experience the haunting and historic Gothic Jail, where paranormal activity runs rampant and the walls hold secrets of a brutal murder, suicides and a double hanging! (337) 463-5534 Website beautour@bellsouth.net Postcards from Louisiana. The Jazz Vipers play at the French Quarter Fest. Listen on Apple Podcasts. Listen on audible. Listen on Spotify. Listen on TuneIn. Listen on iHeartRadio. The Louisiana Anthology Home Page. Like us on Facebook. 

593. Part 1 of our conversation with Nick Douglas about the documentary he is working on about the relationship between jazz and civil rights, “I am working with my filmmaking partner Doug Harris on a documentary called The Reconnect: The Untold History of Jazz. It is a true story about the actual formation of jazz in the only place it could have formed: New Orleans. But it is more it identifies for the first time New Orleans as the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement. It shows how jazz and jazz musicians used jazz and musical performances to fund and support the civil rights movement long before most people realize the movement started. It answers questions about jazz and the civil rights movement that have never been exposed. Enjoy and if you like what we are doing share the video and donate to get this project completed. Nick Douglas is the author of Finding Octave: The Untold History of Two Creole Families and Slavery in Louisiana. Nick is an MBA with a background in international business. Born in Oakland, California, Nick grew up in a multi-generational Creole home. As a child he had a close connection to his grandmother and great-grandmother, who were both Creoles from New Orleans. Now available: Liberty in Louisiana: A Comedy. The oldest play about Louisiana, author James Workman wrote it as a celebration of the Louisiana Purchase. Now it is back in print for the first time in 220 years. Order your copy today! This week in Louisiana history. September 28, 1973. Orleans parish DA Jim Garrison acquitted in Pinball Bribery Case. This week in New Orleans history. June 1927. Airline Highway originally was a two-lane road that ran from Prairieville to Shrewsbury (now Metairie). The first section, running between Williams Boulevard in Kenner and Shrewsbury Road, opened in June 1927. It was begun by the Jefferson Parish Police Jury as a local road and incorporated into the plan for Airline Highway during construction. This week in Louisiana. La Fête des Vieux Temps Oct 04 - 06, 2024 4484 Highway 1 Raceland, LA 70394 985-637-2166 Website Called the "Festival of Old Times" this event features a celebration of music, dancing, Cajun food, and arts & crafts show. This long standing event is a local favorite and showcases the true authentic Cajun culture of Lafourche Parish. New for this year: the return of the pirogue races! Postcards from Louisiana. Roxy Doll plays at the French Quarter Fest. Listen on Apple Podcasts. Listen on audible. Listen on Spotify. Listen on TuneIn. Listen on iHeartRadio. The Louisiana Anthology Home Page. Like us on Facebook. 

Salikoko S. MufweneMondes francophones (2023-2024)Collège de FranceAnnée 2023-2024Colloque - Konstanze Jungbluth : Emergence of "Kust-Portugees" (Coast Portuguese): Encounters along the Gold Coast and beyond in Early Modern TimesIntervenant(s)Konstanze JungbluthProfesseur, Europa-Universität Viadrina, Franfurt (Oder)RésuméHistory shows that creole vernaculars are just ordinary language varieties. Five hundred years ago, dialectal diversity was a well-known fact in Portugal itself. Whenever merchants moved to new places, they needed to create new trading routines including appropriate forms of communication jointly with the locals. Together with their African and, later on, their Asian interlocutors, Portuguese sailors and merchants going native on the continent developed new vernaculars identified as "Kust Portugees", which was also adopted by their European competitors. Dutch companies produced word lists of it that their crews could find handy. It became the lingua franca of that time on the African coast. European and African Portuguese varieties mirror the differences of their ecologies of their encounters and reflect both syncretism and hybridization.Konstanze JungbluthSince 2007: Professor of Linguistics (Pragmatics, Sociolinguistics, Romance Languages), Faculty of Social and Cultural Sciences, European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder).Publications:2022 Jungbluth, K./Milano, Frederica de: Address Systems and Social Markes IN: Maiden, M./ Ledgeway, A. (edd.), Cambridge Handbook of Romance Linguistics, Cambridge: CUP, 763-783.2015 Creoles. IN: Jungbluth, K./Milano, Federica de (edd.), Manual of Deixis in Romance Languages; Series: G. Holtus/F. Miret Sánchez (edd.), Manual of Romance Languages 6, Berlin/Boston: MOUTON De Gruyter, 332-356. (submitted): Brokers on the move. Encounters between Europeans and Africans in the Portuguese Seaborne Empire. IN: Enoch Aboh, Salikoko Mufwene (edd.), Uniformitarianism in Genetic Creolistics. Series CALC. CUP.Projects:2020: B/Ordering Cultures. Conference of the KWG, BIG & TEIN, DFG-funded, Frankfurt (Oder).2015-2018>2023: German-Brazilian co-tutelle PhD program Ethnicity in Motion (DAAD-CAPES/EUV-UFF).2014-2015: Beyond Language Boundaries. Use of L1 and L2 in Multilingual Contexts – 1eres i 2nes Llengües en contextos multilingües (DAAD: Univ. de Barcelona UB-EUV).2013-2016: The Impact of Current Transformational Processes on Language and Ethnic Identity: Urum and Pontic Greeks in Georgia (VWStiftung: together with Stavros Skopeteas, Univ. Göttingen & Greek Department of TSU, Georgia).2010: International Conference 1, 2, 3: my Language, your Language, our Language? Language Use in Multilingual Spaces. EUV Frankfurt (Oder), funded by DFG.

In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of fiction writer Kate Chopin, who dared to write about female sexuality, longing, and identity at a time when women were expected to focus on husbands and family. Chopin's works mostly take place in Louisiana and lyrically reflect the many cultures of the region: Creoles, Acadians, [...]

In this episode, we'll discuss the life and work of fiction writer Kate Chopin, who dared to write about female sexuality, longing, and identity at a time when women were expected to focus on husbands and family. Chopin's works mostly take place in Louisiana and lyrically reflect the many cultures of the region: Creoles, Acadians, [...]

March 19th might be just another day in other parts of the United States, but here in New Orleans it's a day when revelers take to the streets in honor of the Feast of St. Joseph. The tradition of food altars dedicated to Jesus' foster father came to the Crescent City in the late 1800s with immigrants from Sicily, where Joseph is the patron saint. What was called Mi-Carême (or Mid-Lent by the Creoles) was a day when fasting was suspended and festivities abounded. On this week's show, we explore the holiday and join in on the celebration. Tony Marino's family were faithful followers of St. Joseph, and today, he keeps the tradition alive at his Bourbon Street home in New Orleans' French Quarter. We sit down with Tony to hear what it takes to pull off his annual street party, complete with altars and a life-sized statue of St. Joseph. Then, Arthur Brocato, third generation of Angelo Brocato's Ice Cream and Confectionary, joins us to share his family's history and explain the special role Brocato's has played in the St. Joseph's Day celebration. Founded in the French Quarter in 1905, the gelateria and pasticceria continues those traditions today on Carrollton Avenue in Mid-City. Finally, historian Laura Guccione joins us to reveal what she's discovered about the fancy dress balls that were once part of the St. Joseph tradition and to explain the mystical tie between the feast day and the Mardi Gras Indians. For more of all things Louisiana Eats, be sure to visit us at PoppyTooker.com.

March 19th might be just another day in other parts of the United States, but here in New Orleans it's a day when revelers take to the streets in honor of the Feast of St. Joseph. The tradition of food altars dedicated to Jesus' foster father came to the Crescent City in the late 1800s with immigrants from Sicily, where Joseph is the patron saint. What was called Mi-Carême (or Mid-Lent by the Creoles) was a day when fasting was suspended and festivities abounded. On this week's show, we explore the holiday and join in on the celebration. Tony Marino's family were faithful followers of St. Joseph, and today, he keeps the tradition alive at his Bourbon Street home in New Orleans' French Quarter. We sit down with Tony to hear what it takes to pull off his annual street party, complete with altars and a life-sized statue of St. Joseph. Then, Arthur Brocato, third generation of Angelo Brocato's Ice Cream and Confectionary, joins us to share his family's history and explain the special role Brocato's has played in the St. Joseph's Day celebration. Founded in the French Quarter in 1905, the gelateria and pasticceria continues those traditions today on Carrollton Avenue in Mid-City. Finally, historian Laura Guccione joins us to reveal what she's discovered about the fancy dress balls that were once part of the St. Joseph tradition and to explain the mystical tie between the feast day and the Mardi Gras Indians. For more of all things Louisiana Eats, be sure to visit us at PoppyTooker.com.

The blues - one of the greatest cultural inventions of all time - and its history has been shrouded and obscured by folklorists seeking to perpetuate a racist myth applying primitiveness to the genre. Which is untrue of course. Special guest, Aaron Weed! Sources: BlackFacts.com. “Creoles of Color.” Blackfacts.Com, 2023, www.blackfacts.com/fact/creoles-of-color. Cobb, James C. The Most Southern Place on Earth: The Mississippi Delta and the Roots of Regional Identity. 7th ed., Oxford University Press, 1994. Gioia, Ted. Delta Blues. 20th ed., W. W. Norton, 2008. King, Chris Thomas. Blues: The Authentic Narrative of My Music and Culture. Chicago Review Press, Incorporated, 2021.

"This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks." This first line of Longfellow's poem has rung down across time, as his poem was meant to do. He wrote it in blank dactylic hexameter, reminiscent of Homer and Latin heroic verse. It was his most famous poem during his lifetime. The first three stanzas of the poem ("the Prelude") tell the story in precis. The French-speaking settlers of what today is Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and part of Maine, known as Acadia, were forcibly expelled from their land by the British, deported and exiled during the French and Indian wars. The Cajuns and Creoles in Louisiana today are their descendants in the US. This is the forest primeval; but where are the hearts that beneath it Leaped like the roe, when he hears in the woodland the voice of the huntsman Where is the thatch-roofed village, the home of Acadian farmers, Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the woodlands, Darkened by shadows of earth, but reflecting an image of heaven? Waste are those pleasant farms, and the farmers forever departed! Scattered like dust and leaves, when the mighty blasts of October Seize them, and whirl them aloft, and sprinkle them far o'er the ocean Naught but tradition remains of the beautiful village of Grand-Pré. Ye who believe in affection that hopes, and endures, and is patient, Ye who believe in the beauty and strength of woman's devotion, List to the mournful tradition still sung by the pines of the forest; List to a Tale of Love in Acadie, home of the happy. The last four lines here allude to the story woven on this historical backdrop. The love-story of Evangeline and Gabriel, separated in the evacuation, spending their lives in search of one another. Listen with us as we experience this lovely sad tale of lost love.

"This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks." This first line of Longfellow's poem has rung down across time, as his poem was meant to do. He wrote it in blank dactylic hexameter, reminiscent of Homer and Latin heroic verse. It was his most famous poem during his lifetime. The first three stanzas of the poem ("the Prelude") tell the story in precis. The French-speaking settlers of what today is Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and part of Maine, known as Acadia, were forcibly expelled from their land by the British, deported and exiled during the French and Indian wars. The Cajuns and Creoles in Louisiana today are their descendants in the US. This is the forest primeval; but where are the hearts that beneath it Leaped like the roe, when he hears in the woodland the voice of the huntsman Where is the thatch-roofed village, the home of Acadian farmers, Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the woodlands, Darkened by shadows of earth, but reflecting an image of heaven? Waste are those pleasant farms, and the farmers forever departed! Scattered like dust and leaves, when the mighty blasts of October Seize them, and whirl them aloft, and sprinkle them far o'er the ocean Naught but tradition remains of the beautiful village of Grand-Pré. Ye who believe in affection that hopes, and endures, and is patient, Ye who believe in the beauty and strength of woman's devotion, List to the mournful tradition still sung by the pines of the forest; List to a Tale of Love in Acadie, home of the happy. The last four lines here allude to the story woven on this historical backdrop. The love-story of Evangeline and Gabriel, separated in the evacuation, spending their lives in search of one another. Listen with us as we experience this lovely sad tale of lost love.

In this episode we dive into Denver's local music scene, discuss what the Mile High city is known for and react to racists comments on Julius' Tiktok. The Toxic Tangents crew reacts to some videos about race and a man who has an interesting confession to tell his wife. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for free! https://youtube.com/@ToxicTangentzJoin our Patreon for bonus content!: https://www.patreon.com/ToxicTangentsNeed advice or have wild story? Leave an anonymous voicemail  or Submit an anonymous listener letterIf you liked this episode, check out episode 095: Throat Clap095 on Spotify | 095 on AppleAlliss IG: @_alliss__Toxic Tangents IG: @ToxicTangentsJulius IG: @lenbiassJulius TikTok: @outindenverSupport the Show: https://buymeacoffee.com/toxictangents

"This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks." This first line of Longfellow's poem has rung down across time, as his poem was meant to do. He wrote it in blank dactylic hexameter, reminiscent of Homer and Latin heroic verse. It was his most famous poem during his lifetime. The first three stanzas of the poem ("the Prelude") tell the story in precis. The French-speaking settlers of what today is Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and part of Maine, known as Acadia, were forcibly expelled from their land by the British, deported and exiled during the French and Indian wars. The Cajuns and Creoles in Louisiana today are their descendants in the US. This is the forest primeval; but where are the hearts that beneath it Leaped like the roe, when he hears in the woodland the voice of the huntsman Where is the thatch-roofed village, the home of Acadian farmers, Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the woodlands, Darkened by shadows of earth, but reflecting an image of heaven? Waste are those pleasant farms, and the farmers forever departed! Scattered like dust and leaves, when the mighty blasts of October Seize them, and whirl them aloft, and sprinkle them far o'er the ocean Naught but tradition remains of the beautiful village of Grand-Pré. Ye who believe in affection that hopes, and endures, and is patient, Ye who believe in the beauty and strength of woman's devotion, List to the mournful tradition still sung by the pines of the forest; List to a Tale of Love in Acadie, home of the happy. The last four lines here allude to the story woven on this historical backdrop. The love-story of Evangeline and Gabriel, separated in the evacuation, spending their lives in search of one another. Listen with us as we experience this lovely sad tale of lost love.

"This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks." This first line of Longfellow's poem has rung down across time, as his poem was meant to do. He wrote it in blank dactylic hexameter, reminiscent of Homer and Latin heroic verse. It was his most famous poem during his lifetime. The first three stanzas of the poem ("the Prelude") tell the story in precis. The French-speaking settlers of what today is Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and part of Maine, known as Acadia, were forcibly expelled from their land by the British, deported and exiled during the French and Indian wars. The Cajuns and Creoles in Louisiana today are their descendants in the US. This is the forest primeval; but where are the hearts that beneath it Leaped like the roe, when he hears in the woodland the voice of the huntsman Where is the thatch-roofed village, the home of Acadian farmers, Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the woodlands, Darkened by shadows of earth, but reflecting an image of heaven? Waste are those pleasant farms, and the farmers forever departed! Scattered like dust and leaves, when the mighty blasts of October Seize them, and whirl them aloft, and sprinkle them far o'er the ocean Naught but tradition remains of the beautiful village of Grand-Pré. Ye who believe in affection that hopes, and endures, and is patient, Ye who believe in the beauty and strength of woman's devotion, List to the mournful tradition still sung by the pines of the forest; List to a Tale of Love in Acadie, home of the happy. The last four lines here allude to the story woven on this historical backdrop. The love-story of Evangeline and Gabriel, separated in the evacuation, spending their lives in search of one another. Listen with us as we experience this lovely sad tale of lost love.

"This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks." This first line of Longfellow's poem has rung down across time, as his poem was meant to do. He wrote it in blank dactylic hexameter, reminiscent of Homer and Latin heroic verse. It was his most famous poem during his lifetime. The first three stanzas of the poem ("the Prelude") tell the story in precis. The French-speaking settlers of what today is Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and part of Maine, known as Acadia, were forcibly expelled from their land by the British, deported and exiled during the French and Indian wars. The Cajuns and Creoles in Louisiana today are their descendants in the US. This is the forest primeval; but where are the hearts that beneath it Leaped like the roe, when he hears in the woodland the voice of the huntsman Where is the thatch-roofed village, the home of Acadian farmers, Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the woodlands, Darkened by shadows of earth, but reflecting an image of heaven? Waste are those pleasant farms, and the farmers forever departed! Scattered like dust and leaves, when the mighty blasts of October Seize them, and whirl them aloft, and sprinkle them far o'er the ocean Naught but tradition remains of the beautiful village of Grand-Pré. Ye who believe in affection that hopes, and endures, and is patient, Ye who believe in the beauty and strength of woman's devotion, List to the mournful tradition still sung by the pines of the forest; List to a Tale of Love in Acadie, home of the happy. The last four lines here allude to the story woven on this historical backdrop. The love-story of Evangeline and Gabriel, separated in the evacuation, spending their lives in search of one another. Listen with us as we experience this lovely sad tale of lost love.

"This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks." This first line of Longfellow's poem has rung down across time, as his poem was meant to do. He wrote it in blank dactylic hexameter, reminiscent of Homer and Latin heroic verse. It was his most famous poem during his lifetime. The first three stanzas of the poem ("the Prelude") tell the story in precis. The French-speaking settlers of what today is Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and part of Maine, known as Acadia, were forcibly expelled from their land by the British, deported and exiled during the French and Indian wars. The Cajuns and Creoles in Louisiana today are their descendants in the US. This is the forest primeval; but where are the hearts that beneath it Leaped like the roe, when he hears in the woodland the voice of the huntsman Where is the thatch-roofed village, the home of Acadian farmers, Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the woodlands, Darkened by shadows of earth, but reflecting an image of heaven? Waste are those pleasant farms, and the farmers forever departed! Scattered like dust and leaves, when the mighty blasts of October Seize them, and whirl them aloft, and sprinkle them far o'er the ocean Naught but tradition remains of the beautiful village of Grand-Pré. Ye who believe in affection that hopes, and endures, and is patient, Ye who believe in the beauty and strength of woman's devotion, List to the mournful tradition still sung by the pines of the forest; List to a Tale of Love in Acadie, home of the happy. The last four lines here allude to the story woven on this historical backdrop. The love-story of Evangeline and Gabriel, separated in the evacuation, spending their lives in search of one another. Listen with us as we experience this lovely sad tale of lost love.

"This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks." This first line of Longfellow's poem has rung down across time, as his poem was meant to do. He wrote it in blank dactylic hexameter, reminiscent of Homer and Latin heroic verse. It was his most famous poem during his lifetime. The first three stanzas of the poem ("the Prelude") tell the story in precis. The French-speaking settlers of what today is Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and part of Maine, known as Acadia, were forcibly expelled from their land by the British, deported and exiled during the French and Indian wars. The Cajuns and Creoles in Louisiana today are their descendants in the US. This is the forest primeval; but where are the hearts that beneath it Leaped like the roe, when he hears in the woodland the voice of the huntsman Where is the thatch-roofed village, the home of Acadian farmers, Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the woodlands, Darkened by shadows of earth, but reflecting an image of heaven? Waste are those pleasant farms, and the farmers forever departed! Scattered like dust and leaves, when the mighty blasts of October Seize them, and whirl them aloft, and sprinkle them far o'er the ocean Naught but tradition remains of the beautiful village of Grand-Pré. Ye who believe in affection that hopes, and endures, and is patient, Ye who believe in the beauty and strength of woman's devotion, List to the mournful tradition still sung by the pines of the forest; List to a Tale of Love in Acadie, home of the happy. The last four lines here allude to the story woven on this historical backdrop. The love-story of Evangeline and Gabriel, separated in the evacuation, spending their lives in search of one another. Listen with us as we experience this lovely sad tale of lost love.

"This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks." This first line of Longfellow's poem has rung down across time, as his poem was meant to do. He wrote it in blank dactylic hexameter, reminiscent of Homer and Latin heroic verse. It was his most famous poem during his lifetime. The first three stanzas of the poem ("the Prelude") tell the story in precis. The French-speaking settlers of what today is Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and part of Maine, known as Acadia, were forcibly expelled from their land by the British, deported and exiled during the French and Indian wars. The Cajuns and Creoles in Louisiana today are their descendants in the US. This is the forest primeval; but where are the hearts that beneath it Leaped like the roe, when he hears in the woodland the voice of the huntsman Where is the thatch-roofed village, the home of Acadian farmers, Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the woodlands, Darkened by shadows of earth, but reflecting an image of heaven? Waste are those pleasant farms, and the farmers forever departed! Scattered like dust and leaves, when the mighty blasts of October Seize them, and whirl them aloft, and sprinkle them far o'er the ocean Naught but tradition remains of the beautiful village of Grand-Pré. Ye who believe in affection that hopes, and endures, and is patient, Ye who believe in the beauty and strength of woman's devotion, List to the mournful tradition still sung by the pines of the forest; List to a Tale of Love in Acadie, home of the happy. The last four lines here allude to the story woven on this historical backdrop. The love-story of Evangeline and Gabriel, separated in the evacuation, spend their lives in search of one another. Listen with us as we experience this lovely sad tale of lost love.

543. Part 2 of our interview with our friend Elista Istre. Elista has written a new book entitled, Josette and Friends Cook a Gumbo. “This beautifully written and illustrated children's book is a brilliant blend of Louisiana's culture and cuisine.”— Chef John Folse "Cool fall days and warm, cozy friendships bring Josette and her friends together to cook a delicious gumbo bursting with flavor. As the children add their favorite ingredients to the pot, they stir up some fascinating stories about Louisiana's people — including Cajuns, Creoles, American Indians, French, Africans, Germans, and Spanish Isleños. While spicing up their friendship in Mama's kitchen, what will Josette and her friends discover about each other and their own connections to this tasty dish? Bon appétit!" "Dr. Elista Istre, a native and lifelong resident of Lafayette, Louisiana, is a descendant of Cajuns, French Creoles, and Spanish Isleños. An avid traveler with a passion for cultures across the globe, Elista has been sharing her region's diverse heritage with audiences of all ages around the world for more than twenty years. Elista founded her own company Belle Heritage to provide consulting expertise and create cultural experiences that inspire individuals and organizations to celebrate the beauty of heritage." (ULL Press) This week in Louisiana history. October 6, 1860. John Slidell publishes his address to people of LA. "Let every man go to polls...we may soon be called under a common flag against a common enemy." This week in New Orleans history. Ralph Dupas (October 14, 1935 – January 25, 2008) was a boxer from New Orleans who won the world light middleweight championship. Champion Denny Moyer came to New Orleans on April 29, 1963, and Dupas won the title with a fifteen-round unanimous decision. This week in Louisiana. San Bernardo Scenic Byway LA Hwy 46 Website Beginning at the border of Orleans and St. Bernard Parishes and stretching 29 miles along Louisiana Hwy 46, the San Bernardo National Scenic Byway traverses St. Bernard Parish along the Mississippi River to the fishing villages of Yscloskey and Delacroix Island. Many of St. Bernard's major attractions are located along the byway including the Old Arabi Historic Districts, Chalmette Battlefield & National Cemetery, Docville Oaks and Farm, and the Islenos Museum & Village Complex Postcards from Louisiana. Single Malt Please with Maude Caillat at the BMC Bar on Decatur St. in New Orleans. Listen on Google Play. Listen on Spotify. Listen on TuneIn. The Louisiana Anthology Home Page. Like us on Facebook. 

542. Part 1 of our conversation with our friend Elista Istre. She has written a book entitled, Josette and Friends Cook a Gumbo. “This beautifully written and illustrated children's book is a brilliant blend of Louisiana's culture and cuisine.”— Chef John Folse "Cool fall days and warm, cozy friendships bring Josette and her friends together to cook a delicious gumbo bursting with flavor. As the children add their favorite ingredients to the pot, they stir up some fascinating stories about Louisiana's people—including Cajuns, Creoles, American Indians, French, Africans, Germans, and Spanish Isleños. While spicing up their friendship in Mama's kitchen, what will Josette and her friends discover about each other and their own connections to this tasty dish? Bon appétit!" "Dr. Elista Istre, a native and lifelong resident of Lafayette, Louisiana, is a descendant of Cajuns, French Creoles, and Spanish Isleños. An avid traveler with a passion for cultures across the globe, Elista has been sharing her region's diverse heritage with audiences of all ages around the world for more than twenty years. Elista founded her own company Belle Heritage to provide consulting expertise and create cultural experiences that inspire individuals and organizations to celebrate the beauty of heritage." (ULL Press) This week in Louisiana history. September 30, 1764. D'Abbadie acknowledges receipt of transfer of colony from French to Spanish. This week in New Orleans history. This week in Louisiana. Steamboat Washington Arrives in New Orleans October 7, 1816. Commemorative Stamp Issued March 3, 1989. Watercolor by Richard Schlecht. On October 7, 1816 the Washington, built by Henry M. Shreve, was the first double-decker. steamboat to arrive in New Orleans and became the model for the classic style of Mississippi river boats -- flat-bottomed, two stories, steam-powered paddle wheel mounted on the stern, two smoke-stacks. First used to carry cargo it was soon open for passenger transportation. The Washington moved at lightning speed compared to other boats on the rivers -- 16 mph upstream and downstream at as much as 25 mph. Shreve launched the boat earlier that year on the Monongahela River just above Pittsburgh. Shreve's cleverly designed Washington had all the features that would soon come to characterize the classic Mississippi riverboat: a two-story deck, a stern-mounted paddle wheel powered by a high-pressure steam engine, a shallow, flat-bottomed hull, and a pilothouse framed by two tall chimneys. Perfectly designed for the often-shallow western rivers like the Mississippi and Missouri, the Washington proved itself on its inaugural voyage the following spring. Steaming upriver against the current with full cargo, the Washington reached Louisville in only 25 days, demonstrating that the powerful new generation of steamboats could master the often-treacherous currents of the mighty western rivers. Soon the Washington began to offer regular passenger and cargo service between New Orleans and Louisville. Postcards from Louisiana. Single Malt Please with Maude Caillat at the BMC Bar on Decatur St. in New Orleans.  Listen on Google Play. Listen on Spotify. Listen on TuneIn. The Louisiana Anthology Home Page. Like us on Facebook. 

Cadie. Acadie. Acadian. Cajun. Acadiana. These words are part of the history and culture that developed in south Louisiana over the course of the last three centuries. They're an integral part of telling their story — but they can't do it alone. Combining elements from various peoples who traveled from several continents, this mix of cultures is so unique, even a gumbo metaphor isn't complex enough to describe it. Professor Barry Ancelet, musician Louis Michot, and entrepreneur Marie Dacote-Comeaux guide us through the distinctive fusion of tradition and history of the Cajun and Creole people of south Louisiana — and explain how recent efforts have helped to revitalize and popularize their culture, largely in response to concerted efforts to suppress it for several decades before. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The period of Indian Indentureship was a time of remarkable change for our ancestors as traditional caste barriers, deeply ingrained in Indian society, began to crumble. In particular, the proximity of high and low caste Indians in Immigration Depots, aboard ships, and across the Caribbean played a pivotal role in this dramatic shift.   Imagine the impact when people from different castes found themselves side by side, sharing physical spaces, resources, and experiences. This forced interaction challenged the long-standing prejudices and hierarchies that shaped Indian communities for generations. As they embarked on a new life in a foreign land, our ancestors had to rely on each other, breaking down the walls of caste that once separated them.   The consequences of this radical transformation were profound. Some suggest that the breakdown of caste opened doors to unprecedented social and economic mobility. Individuals from lower castes were no longer confined by the limitations imposed by their birth. Others argue that the erosion of traditional caste distinctions meant the loss of cultural practices and values that were deeply intertwined with caste identities. As our ancestors embraced a new reality, some aspects of their heritage and customs were diluted or even lost, leaving a bittersweet legacy. Join us on the Pepper Pot Podcast as we delve deeper into this chapter of our history in Episode 6: Caste Away. In this episode, we explore the impact of the dismantling of caste barriers, the triumphs, the dilemmas, and the enduring lessons we can learn from this momentous transformation. Together, let's uncover the layers of our shared heritage and celebrate the resilience and strength of our ancestors.   Follow and connect with The Peppa Pot Podcast online, we'd love to hear from you! Instagram YouTube LinkedIn Credits Beats and Music by Noyz Research by Ryan N. Ramdin Creative Direction by Sara-Sati Ramprashad Produced by WESTINDIECO    Resources Bahadur, G. “Coolie Woman: the Odyssey of Indenture” (The University of Chicago Press: 2014). Basu, S. (2016 Sept. 28), “Solah Shringar: The science behind it” Times of India. Available at: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/beauty/solah-shringar-the-science-behind-it/articleshow/54520592.cms  Bronkhurst, H.V.P. (1888) “Among the Hindus and Creoles of British Guiana and its Labouring Population,” Woolmer, London. Christian, R. “‘They Came in Ships...' Indo-Caribbean Women and their Construction of Safe Spaces in the Caribbean” in Lurdos, M. & Misrahi-Barak, J. (dir.), “Transport(s) in the British Empire and the Commonwealth.” “I am a Coolie: Identity and Indenture,” Moray House Trust. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUirPfa8Fjg&t=1811s  Jayawardena, C. (1966) “Religious Belief and Social Change: Aspects of the Development of Hinduism in British Guiana,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 8(2), pp. 211-240. Khanan, B.H. & Chickrie. R. (2009) “170th Anniversary of the Arrival of the First Hindustani Muslims from India to British Guiana,” Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 29(2). Mahabir, K. (ed.) (2004) ‘The Massacre of Indians in the 1884 Hosay” Indian Arrival Day, 5(1). Mahase, R. (2005) “Caste, Religion and Gender Differentiations amongst Indentured Labourers from Bihar to Trinidad, 1870 to 1900,” in Samaroo, B., Bissessar, A-M. (eds.) “The Construction of an Indo-Caribbean Diaspora” (UWI School of Continuing Studies, St Augustine, Trinidad). Moore, B.L. (1979) “Retention of Caste Notions Among the Indian Immigrants in British Guiana in the Nineteenth Century” Comparative Studies in Society and History. “Tracing Roots to India,” Trinidad & Tobago Guardian. Available at: https://www.guardian.co.tt/article-6.2.423197.55992c06ab

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Endo-, Dia-, Para-, and Ecto-systemic novelty, published by Tsvi Benson-Tilsen on April 23, 2023 on The AI Alignment Forum. [Metadata: crossposted from. First completed January 10, 2023. This essay is more like research notes than exposition, so context may be missing, the use of terms may change across essays, and the text might be revised later; only the versions at tsvibt.blogspot.com are definitely up to date.] Novelty can be coarsely described as one of: fitting within a preexisting system; constituting a shift of the system; creating a new parallel subsystem; or standing unintegrated outside the system. Thanks to Sam Eisenstat for related conversations. Novelty is understanding (structure, elements) that a mind acquires (finds, understands, makes its own, integrates, becomes, makes available for use to itself or its elements, incorporates into its thinking). A novel element (that is, structure that wasn't already there in the mind fully explicitly) can relate to the mind in a few ways, described here mainly by analogy and example. A clearer understanding of novelty than given here might clarify the forces acting in and on a mind when it is acquiring novelty, such as "value drives". Definitions "System" ("together-standing") is used here to emphasize the network of relations between elements of a mind. These terms aren't supposed to be categories, but more like overlapping regions in the space of possibilities for how novelty relates to the preexisting mind. Endosystemic novelty (or "basis-aligned" or "in-ontology") is novelty that is integrated into the mind by fitting alongside and connecting to other elements, in ways analogous to how preexisting elements fit in with each other. Endosystemic novelty is "within the system"; it's within the language, ontology, style of thinking, conceptual scheme, or modus operandi of the preexisting mind. Diasystemic novelty (or "cross-cutting" or "basis-skew" or "ontological shift") is novelty that is constituted as a novel structure of the mind by many shifts in many of the preexisting elements or relations, adding up to something coherent or characteristically patterned. Diasystemic novelty is "throughout the system"; it's skew to the system, cross-cutting the preexisting schemes; it touches (maybe subtly) many elements, many relations, or certain elements that shape much of the mind's activity, hence altering the overall dynamics or character of the system. Parasystemic novelty is novelty that is only loosely integrated into the whole mind, while being more tightly integrated within a subsystem of the mind. Parasystemic novelty is "alongside the system"; it's neither basis-aligned (since it's outside preexisting tightly integrated systems) nor cross-cutting (as it doesn't touch most of the system, or require most of the system for its constitution). Ectosystemic novelty is novelty that is merely juxtaposed or appended to the mind, without being really integrated. Ectosystemic novelty is "on or outside the system"; it's external, only loosely related to the mind, as by a narrow interface or by an external aggregration mechanism. It differs from parasystemic novelty by being even less integrated, and by not nucleating or expanding a tightly integrated subsystem. Analogies Analogy: If a language is like a mind, then a new word would be endosystemic novelty; a sound shift or (more properly) a grammatical innovation would be diasystemic (cross-cutting) novelty; specialized languages (such as scientific jargon), and dialect formation, would be parasystemic novelty; and an encounter with a foreign language would be ectosystemic novelty. Pidgins, being unstable and noncanonical, witness the ectosystemic nature: the foreign languages don't integrate. Creoles, however, could be dubbed "systemopoetic novelty"--like parasystemic novel...

March 19th might be just another day in other parts of the United States, but here in New Orleans it's a day when revelers take to the streets in honor of the Feast of St. Joseph. The tradition of food altars dedicated to Jesus' foster father came to the Crescent City in the late 1800s with immigrants from Sicily, where Joseph is the patron saint. What was called Mi-Carême (or Mid-Lent by the Creoles) was a day when fasting was suspended and festivities abounded. On this week's show, we explore the holiday and join in on the celebration. Tony Marino's family were faithful followers of St. Joseph, and today, he keeps the tradition alive at his Bourbon Street home in New Orleans' French Quarter. We sit down with Tony to hear what it takes to pull off his annual street party, complete with altars and a life-sized statue of St. Joseph. Then, Arthur Brocato, third generation of Angelo Brocato's Ice Cream and Confectionary, joins us to share his family's history and explain the special role Brocato's has played in the St. Joseph's Day celebration. Founded in the French Quarter in 1905, the gelateria and pasticceria continues those traditions today on Carrollton Avenue in Mid-City. Finally, historian Laura Guccione joins us to reveal what she's discovered about the fancy dress balls that were once part of the St. Joseph tradition and to explain the mystical tie between the feast day and the Mardi Gras Indians. For more of all things Louisiana Eats, be sure to visit us at PoppyTooker.com.

March 19th might be just another day in other parts of the United States, but here in New Orleans it's a day when revelers take to the streets in honor of the Feast of St. Joseph. The tradition of food altars dedicated to Jesus' foster father came to the Crescent City in the late 1800s with immigrants from Sicily, where Joseph is the patron saint. What was called Mi-Carême (or Mid-Lent by the Creoles) was a day when fasting was suspended and festivities abounded. On this week's show, we explore the holiday and join in on the celebration. Tony Marino's family were faithful followers of St. Joseph, and today, he keeps the tradition alive at his Bourbon Street home in New Orleans' French Quarter. We sit down with Tony to hear what it takes to pull off his annual street party, complete with altars and a life-sized statue of St. Joseph. Then, Arthur Brocato, third generation of Angelo Brocato's Ice Cream and Confectionary, joins us to share his family's history and explain the special role Brocato's has played in the St. Joseph's Day celebration. Founded in the French Quarter in 1905, the gelateria and pasticceria continues those traditions today on Carrollton Avenue in Mid-City. Finally, historian Laura Guccione joins us to reveal what she's discovered about the fancy dress balls that were once part of the St. Joseph tradition and to explain the mystical tie between the feast day and the Mardi Gras Indians. For more of all things Louisiana Eats, be sure to visit us at PoppyTooker.com.

The Book Review Series: Highlights of some very great books about American history. A list of books everyone should have in their libraries. First published in 1978, Claude F. Oubre's Forty Acres and a Mule has since become a definitive study in the history of American Reconstruction. Drawing on a vast collection of government records and newspapers, Oubre examines what he sees as the crucial question of Reconstruction: Why were the vast majority of freed slaves denied the opportunity to own land during the Reconstruction era, leaving them vulnerable to a persecution that strongly resembled slavery? Oubre recounts the struggle of black families to acquire land and how the U.S. government agency Freedmen's Bureau both served and obstructed them. Claude F. Oubre (1937-2011) was a professor of history and political science at Louisiana State University at Eunice and coauthor of Creoles of Color in the Bayou Country. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jamaine-farmer-bey/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jamaine-farmer-bey/support

John McWhorter is a linguistics professor at Columbia University specialising in research on creole languages. He's also a content-producing machine, never afraid to give his frank opinion on anything and everything. On top of his academic work he's also written 22 books, produced five online university courses, hosts one and a half podcasts, and now writes a regular New York Times op-ed column. Links to learn more, summary and full transcript. Our show is mostly about the world's most pressing problems and what you can do to solve them. But what's the point of hosting a podcast if you can't occasionally just talk about something fascinating with someone whose work you appreciate? So today, just before the holidays, we're sharing this interview with John about language and linguistics — including what we think are some of the most important things everyone ought to know about those topics. We ask him: • Can you communicate faster in some languages than others, or is there some constraint that prevents that? • Does learning a second or third language make you smarter or not? • Can a language decay and get worse at communicating what people want to say? • If children aren't taught a language, how many generations does it take them to invent a fully fledged one of their own? • Did Shakespeare write in a foreign language, and if so, should we translate his plays? • How much does language really shape the way we think? • Are creoles the best languages in the world — languages that ideally we would all speak? • What would be the optimal number of languages globally? • Does trying to save dying languages do their speakers a favour, or is it more of an imposition? • Should we bother to teach foreign languages in UK and US schools? • Is it possible to save the important cultural aspects embedded in a dying language without saving the language itself? • Will AI models speak a language of their own in the future, one that humans can't understand but which better serves the tradeoffs AI models need to make? We then put some of these questions to ChatGPT itself, asking it to play the role of a linguistics professor at Colombia University. We've also added John's talk “Why the World Looks the Same in Any Language” to the end of this episode. So stick around after the credits! And if you'd rather see Rob and John's facial expressions or beautiful high cheekbones while listening to this conversation, you can watch the video of the full conversation here. Get this episode by subscribing to our podcast on the world's most pressing problems and how to solve them: type 80,000 Hours into your podcasting app. Producer: Keiran Harris Audio mastering: Ben Cordell Video editing: Ryan Kessler Transcriptions: Katy Moore

In this episode, I will be sharing an article I read on MyBelize.Net, who ought to be ashamed of themselves for this opening."Garifuna Music ArtistsFrom colonial days, music and dance have been an essential part of the Creole culture. Drum-led dancing was a major part of Christmas and other celebrations in Creole communities. A style of music called brukdown originated from the all night brams thrown by Creole families that focuses both on social commentary and hijinks. This music and the party associated with it are on the decline as youths adopt the culture of the outside world. Other favorite pastimes of the Creoles are story telling, particularly of the trickster spider Anansi, and construction of handicrafts."Read the full article here:https://www.mybelize.net/people-culture/the-garinagu/music-and-art/Support the show

This is a re-release of our interview originally conducted with Ceci Neustrom in May 2022. Since our first interview, Ceci celebrated her body of work by unveiling two new portraits representing the Bergeron and Trahan families at the Hilliard Art Museum on October 12, 2022. We thought it was fitting to once again share her beautiful story during this week of Festivals Acadiens de Creoles in Lafayette. Ceci never pictured herself as an artist. Growing up as an older daughter in a family of 13 children in Mississippi, Ceci was a nurturer who took care of things…she cooked, sewed, and cleaned. “Art was never a part of my life.” We taped this episode at the offices of BBR Creative with owner, Cherie Hebert, who has supported Ceci's art. Ceci graduated from USL and married football star Michael Neustrom, who eventually served as Lafayette Parish Sheriff for 16 years. They have made a good team and are the proud parents of six children. A native of Mississippi, Ceci studied to become an educator, and then found her career evolving into being a landman, or as she became known, a “landmam.” For decades, she researched the ownership of land and mineral rights of families in South Louisiana and became immersed in the interconnectedness of the Acadian families in our region. Her work in the local courthouses inspired her to learn more about the families who had settled here after the 1755 expulsion of Acadians who had become owners of vast expanses of land in our region. She'd sit at their kitchen tables or on their farms and get to know their stories as she figured out who owned mineral rights to the properties their families had settled on generations before. Then, at the age of 55, her husband Mike gave her the gift of art lessons with Pat Soper, an acclaimed local art teacher and painter. Ceci had no inkling that she herself had artistic talent and had only doodled before she took up classes. She was angry with Mike for putting her in a position to fail. But, she didn't fail, soaring once she tapped into her dormant ability to paint. She ended up as a resident artist at the renowned Art Studio League in New York City. Ceci found that she loved the experience of creating, of “joining in the experience of creation with our maker. It felt to me like a miracle that I could do this. I didn't believe that I could do this.” Chief Judge James McKay of the 4th Circuit convinced Ceci Neustrom to paint his portrait. This work set her on the path to loving the art of portraiture, of capturing the essence of the human form. “I discovered figure painting. It's what spoke to my heart.” Judge McKay played football at USL with Ceci's husband, Mike Neustrom, in the 1970's. Ceci has grown as an artist and has since created breathtakingly beautiful oil portraits of locals, as well of present-day descendants of Acadian settlers who arrived in south Louisiana in the mid-1700s. She has named this the “Acadian Heritage Series.” To date, her work showcases the Babineaux, Bergeron, Breaux, Broussard, Comeaux, Guidry, Hebert, LeBlanc, Prejean, and Trahan families. While many of us are familiar with events surrounding the expulsion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia in 1755, paintings depicting that era always seem to include large groups of people, not individuals affected by the tragedy. Ceci's oil portraits draw you in and make things real. You can feel the strength and the grit, of the Acadians who survived and thrived. It's hard to explain the energy that surrounds these paintings that honor our region's Acadian lineage. Ceci was helped greatly by local experts in the Acadian culture. Cheryl Perret helped Ceci get started in identifying Acadian families who might participate in her series. Special thanks go to Mary and Warren Perrin of the Acadian Museum for their historical knowledge. Suzanne Breaux also was of great help, who is a fiber specialist,

Hello Interactors,The next couple episodes will be a little off beat as I’m coming to you from the east coast of the United States. It’s time to deliver our little birdies from the nest so they may build their own. Dorm room nesting is a common sight this time of year among many young human adults seeking knowledge and independence. It can be observed in the towering cities of New York City and the smallest lowland wooded enclaves of Waltham, Massachusetts.For this momentous trip I’m listening to a book about a young man who launched to places further away than this. It’s a book I wish I had consumed long before now – The Invention of Nature by historian Andrea Wulf. It tells the tale of a man few have heard of but have most likely have heard the name – Humboldt. Alexander von Humboldt. His name graces more geographic places, plants, and animals around the world than any other. That’s because he was the first person to travel the world scientifically articulating what traditional Indigenous knowledge keepers have known for millennia – that all of nature is connected by an intricate web we now call an ecosystem.Born in Germany in 1769, he was the most celebrated scientist of his time. Upon his most famous and influential trip to South America, in his twenties, he observed how Spanish colonialism had ravaged the land. Acres of native vegetation had been cut and burned to make way for monoculture cash crops like sugar cane, wheat, and corn where all profits were then sent to the Spanish monarchy. Streams and rivers had been diverted to water these thirsty crops leaving lakes, ponds, and subterranean reservoirs dry. Local plants and animals, including Indigenous populations, were suffering as a result.The local Spaniards and Creoles believed there must be a leak in the earth causing these conditions, but it was Humboldt, through meticulous geographic, geological, and meteorological observation, who determined it was the crops that had caused the devastation. He surmised that between the increased temperatures caused by the loss of trees and vegetation (that naturally cool and release moisture into the air) and the drying up and hardening of the soil (thus depleting the earth of groundwater) that significant damage was being done to the area.He posited that such destruction at larger scales around the world may alter climatic patterns. He introduced the idea of human induced climate change in 1800. He further observed that these negative effects originated with infective colonialism of European and American profit seeking imperialist machines that relied heavily on the abduction and trade of human slaves from Africa and local Indigenous populations to work the fields of these monocultural crops.Governments and corporations didn’t just ignore Humboldt’s warnings, they accelerated the pace of production and destruction. That insistence continues to this day as countries and corporations fight for access to natural resources and cheap labor – far out of the reaches of complicit eyes and ears – to feed the beast of rampant worldwide consumerism. As Humboldt warned, over 200 years ago, at the peril of earth’s resources and their interconnected web of life. You can’t say we weren’t warned.Alexander von Humboldt remained a harsh critic of colonialism, capitalism, and slavery until the day he died. He witnessed firsthand the early devastating impact greed was having on the planet and its inhabitants – most especially Black and Indigenous people. Humboldt was a heartfelt man, but his true love was science. He abhorred politics and politicians though remained popular among them all, except Napoleon. Thomas Jefferson was particularly enamored with Humboldt. They shared a common affinity and thirst for botanical, astronomical, and geographical knowledge. Humboldt shared with Jefferson all he knew of South America and Mexico who was starved by the Spanish of any information at all. While he shared in the spirit of two science loving naturalist friends, that knowledge turned out to be instrumental in helping Jefferson, and the United States, increase their imperial standing in the world and its widespread ecologically damaging capitalistic dominance. Humboldt endeared himself to Jefferson mostly because he was impressed with Jefferson’s commitment to liberty. Though he disapproved of Jefferson’s adherence to slavery, he was wary of criticizing Jefferson directly for fear of disenfranchising their friendship. However, his diary, and the diary of others, reveals he did so in private to Jefferson’s friends and colleagues. Some history scholars criticize Humboldt for not using these opportunities to sway the opinions of these powerful men, but Humboldt believed science should rise above politics and the best way to share science was to share it with everyone who would listen regardless of their political or governmental affiliation.Humboldt worked tirelessly, day and night, wherever he happened to be living. Scientific luminaries and academics could not understand how a single man could be so well versed in so many subjects, be seen in so many places on a given day or night, while continuing to discover new insights about the world – all with boundless energy. He spoke so fast and on so many topics, in three languages, that people said one could learn in two hours of listening to Humboldt what would take months to master on their own.He was a slight and nimble man with thin delicate hands. These attributes served him well squeezing into caverns and mines and placing sensitive miniscule blossoms into tiny glass vials. But he also had the strength and determination to endure extreme altitudes climbing rocky trails with shoes ripped to shreds. Upon total failure, he would hike barefoot. With his feet sometimes bleeding, he would stop every few hundred meters to take measurements with his barometer, altimeter, and sextant while collecting rock and plant specimens, drawing diagrams, and illustrating landscapes. It was he who first speculated on plate tectonics two hundred years before their full understanding by observing common plant species and geology between, say, a western coast of one continental land mass and the eastern coast of another.It's unfortunate that one of the most intriguing, intelligent, and ecologically committed scientists to have ever lived, who inspired everyone from Charles Darwin to Henry David Thoreau, eventually succumbed to the realities of endless European wars and political turmoil. These ordeals limited his travels to other lands he desperately wanted to visit, explore, and further connect his web of knowledge and the web of life.Given his broad and groundbreaking studies, travel, and international fame makes one wonder why Humboldt is not a household name today as it once was in the 1800s despite being in countless scientific books, journals, and maps. Is it that the complex connections and relationships that make life possible and sustainable are too difficult to teach or comprehend? That can’t explain why Newton or Einstein are so popular. Maybe it is just easier to teach the memorization of the scientific facts of biology and physics and the strict classification schemes of rocks, plants, and animals, than the rich interdependent interactions on which each of them relies.Or perhaps we’ve grown ambivalent. Have we grown too comfortable to care about the workings of the world? Maybe Humboldt’s ideas are too threatening to the very institutions of colonialism, unbridled capitalism, and the over exploitation of natural and human resources he warned everyone of. Has overt capitalism made us too comfortable, complacent, and complicit? Perhaps those in power think it best not to perpetuate the ideas of a man critical of those systems that maintain the power of few, the comfort for some, and the education of many.Napoleon thought so. He tried to have Humboldt banished from Paris, the heartbeat of scientific discovery and individual liberties at the time, suspecting him a subversive threat to Napoleonic domination. After all, it was politics and power struggles by the Napoleonic Wars that interrupted Humboldt’s continued quest to document, communicate, and share the scientific knowledge of ecosystems; the roots of which exist in traditional indigenous knowledge colonists squelched, shunned, or stole. Perhaps the same power and politics that held Humboldt back continue to hold us back today.But we’ve had over 200 years to adjust course and have done nothing. Is it too late? I think not. Besides, there’s too much at stake for us all to remain ambivalent. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend this book. May it mark the beginning of your own journey. Let’s all follow in the footsteps of Alexander von Humboldt and share with our web of connections the ecological web connecting all of life. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit interplace.io

Brief History of Creoles in United States Pt. 1   know your black history: deconstructing the quadroon ball | AFROPUNK   The Creole Community in The United States of America, a story - African American Registry (aaregistry.org)   Read more: https://www.everyculture.com/multi/Bu-Dr/Creoles.html#ixzz7adj6w2ni   The Free People of Color of Pre-Civil War New Orleans - JSTOR Daily Free Women of Color in the Development of Faubourg Marigny | Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans (prcno.org) Louisiana Creoles(people) - Afropedea The Free Black Men and Women of New Orleans and the Placage System : All About Romance     Plaçage | The Honest Courtesan (maggiemcneill.com)

Brief History of Creoles in United States Pt. 1   The Creole Community in The United States of America, a story - African American Registry (aaregistry.org)   Read more: https://www.everyculture.com/multi/Bu-Dr/Creoles.html#ixzz7adj6w2ni   The Free People of Color of Pre-Civil War New Orleans - JSTOR Daily   Free Women of Color in the Development of Faubourg Marigny | Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans (prcno.org)     Louisiana Creoles(people) - Afropedea   The Free Black Men and Women of New Orleans and the Placage System : All About Romance   Plaçage | The Honest Courtesan (maggiemcneill.com)

Join Emma Sharma as we venture to one of the most stunning, sensual countries in Africa...Sierra Leone. This country is rich in history and a special pride in the country. Emma talks about the different tribes including Creoles. New Orleans can trace its roots to Sierra Leon. The okra, fish and peanut stew rivals the 5 star restaurants in the South. And hear about the gorgeous beaches and over hospitable people. Visit other sensual countries with us at www.transformedtraveler.com. To learn more about Emma, visit her site at www.swallowtailgroup.com, management specialist in culture.

Lafayette, Louisiana's annual Festivals Acadiens et Creoles is coming up on the second weekend of October. But for festival founder Barry Ancelet, having just one celebration of Acadiana music, cuisine, and customs a year wasn't enough. Folklorist, ethno-musi-cologist, author, and Professor of Francophone Studies at the University of Louisiana Lafayette, Barry Ancelet joins us to tell us more about the new Legacy Series: monthly lectures and musical performances aimed at exploring both historical and contemporary Cajun culture and traditions.  And, while we're months away from the one year anniversary of Hurricane Ida, many Louisiana residents are still feeling the impacts of the storm, particularly, displacement. A Metairie High schooler, Vaishnavi Kumbala, was interested in how storms displace residents, particularly, teenagers. Her article, “Hurricane Season: What It's Like to Be Displaced From Your Home As a Teen,” was recently published in Teen Vogue, commissioned in partnership with the New Orleans Junior Journalism Program. She joins to discuss her reporting experience and what she found. Today's episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Karen Henderson. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber and our digital editor is Katelyn Umholtz. Our engineers are Garrett Pittman, Aubry Procell, and Thomas Walsh.  You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at 12:00 and 7:30 pm. It's available on Spotify, Google Play, and wherever you get your podcasts.  Louisiana Considered wants to hear from you! Please fill out our pitch line to let us know what kinds of story ideas you have for our show. And while you're at it, fill out our listener survey! We want to keep bringing you the kinds of conversations you'd like to listen to. Louisiana Considered is made possible with support from our listeners. Thank you!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

https://whitneyplantation.org (Whitney Plantation) is a 200 acre former sugar plantation turned historic site dedicated to telling the history of slavery in the United States from the perspective of the enslaved Africans, African-Americans, and Creoles of Color who built America's wealth. However, it takes much more to share and interpret this history than just opening the door. Join hosts Dr. Joy Banner, Director of Marketing and Communications, and Amber Mitchell, Director of Education, as they discuss the unique intersection of history, preservation, race, and storytelling that create a one-of-a-kind visitor experience. Subscribe to the feed anywhere you find podcasts to get notifications for each weekly episode drop. - Looking to visit Whitney Plantation? Check out our https://my.captivate.fm/www.whitneyplantation.org (website) for information on tours, programs, and events. Remember to follow us on all social media platforms! Help us continue creating programming that informs through https://www.whitneyplantation.org/donate/ (a donation to Whitney Plantation).

In this interview, we talk to Philipp Krämer about the history of the study of creole languages and present-day efforts to standardise creoles around the world. Download | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts References for Episode 26 Primary…Read more ›

In this interview, we talk to Felicity Meakins about Pidgins, Creoles, and mixed languages. We discuss what they are, and how they are viewed in both linguistic scholarship and in speaker communities. Download | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google…Read more ›

471. It's our 10th Anniversary for the Louisiana Anthology website and the 9th for the Louisiana Anthology Podcast. We discuss our accomplishments over the last year. The Louisiana Anthology has reached almost 9,000,000 words and 230 authors. This year we also migrated the anthology to its new home, http://louisiana-anthology.org/. Hopefully by our next anniversary, our first print book will be out — Liberty in Louisiana, by James Workman. It is the oldest surviving play about Louisiana, out of print since 1804. Over the last year, we have added a number of works to the web site. The most significant one is Gumbo Ya-Ya, by Lyle Saxon and a team of WPA researchers. It is a collection of folklore about New Orleans and Louisiana in general. We also have the Louisiana Anthology Podcast with 470 episodes and counting, The Louisiana Anthology Cookbook is our cooking blog, with 1,400 recipes. Stay tuned for more great material this coming year!  This week in Louisiana history. May 29, 1948. The Desire streetcars stopped running. This week in New Orleans history. May 28, 1964. Mrs. Ellis was being honored as Woman of the Year by the Women's Auxiliary of the Protestant Children's Home. This week in Louisiana. Vermilionville Head over to Vemilionville, a living history museum and and folklife park along the Bayou Vermilion to learn about the culture of Native Americans, Africans, Creoles and people of African descent in the area from the time period 1765-1890. See how these groups interacted and how their influence played a part in what made the Lafayette of today. Dine at La Cuisine de Maman in a truly unique setting. Postcards from Louisiana. Jazz Trio plays in the Frenchman Hotel.Listen on iTunes.Listen on Google Play.Listen on Google Podcasts.Listen on Spotify.Listen on Stitcher.Listen on TuneIn.The Louisiana Anthology Home Page.Like us on Facebook.

Originally aired in 2017 Host Scott Fisher opens the show with David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist for the New England Historic Genealogical Society and AmericanAncestors.org. David is on the road in Louisville, Kentucky. The guys start by discussing Fisher's bizarre find of an 1807 church record where all of his ancestors and their relatives seem to be marked with a cross! David then begins Family Histoire News with the story of a woman whose 122-year-old house is getting some very unique treatment from the government of St. Louis. Next, it's the story of a 99-year-old Dutch woman who just checked something off her bucket list that most of us would never think of. Find out why. Then, a Santa Barbara couple planned their wedding and then learned something very unique… concerning them… about this ancient venue. Next, Fisher begins his two-part visit with Michael Henderson of Atlanta, Georgia. As an African-American Creole from New Orleans, Michael took an early interest in his family history, taking his lines back to numerous Revolutionary soldiers and branches to several Europeans countries. Wait til you hear about the two century old document concerning his ancestor he found and was able to hold. In the second segment with Michael Henderson, he talks about the experience of becoming Georgia's first African-American member of the Sons of the American Revolution. It's a terrific wrap up to Black History Month! Then, it's Tom Perry from TMCPlace.com, back to talk preservation. Tom answers a question about what to do if you have pictures that are stuck together. Yes, they are salvageable! Hear what Tom has to say.

Hello language Lovers! Thank you for joining me for this episode of Speaking Tongues- the podcast in conversation with multilinguals. This week, we're talking Reunionese Creole - that's the creole language spoken on the island of Reunion - with Nelsy of Yseuln Abroad. In this episode, Nelsy the world traveler tells us about language and culture more close to home on Reunion. We talk about how French and Creole are used and the generational differences that occur when speaking the Creole. She tells us some expressions spoken by older people that haven't made their way to the younger generation and she even teaches us some basic creole phrases. Nelsy talks about understanding the way a Creole language is structured and how this can factor into understanding Creoles of the Caribbean. We also talk about dialects, food and diversity on Reunion and if there are any linguists out there, we are asking a big question about the relationship between Creole languages. Nelsy tells us what we can look forward to when we visit Reunion- from the food to the diversity and community of people on the island. Thank you Nelsy for this conversation about Reunionese Creole and for sharing a part of your culture with all of us. If you enjoy episodes of Speaking Tongues, don't forget to subscribe, rate and review the Speaking Tongues Podcast on Apple Podcasts and like and subscribe on YouTube so that other language lovers like ourselves can find the show! Thank you to Speaking Tongues' recent supporters and Patrons Linnea H. and Pat N. If you've been a long time listener of the show or a recent listener, you can now pledge ongoing support for the show on Buy Me a Coffee dot com or on Patreon dot com. And as you know, I wrote a book! My food ‘zine of international language and cuisine, Taste Buds Vol 1. is available now for purchase! Check social media for the sneak peek inside of the book and make sure you purchase for yourself and your friends! Links to all platforms are in the show notes! To find Nelsy: Website: https://yseuln.com/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/yseuln_abroad/ Speaking Tongues Podcast: Follow on IG: @speakingtonguespod Follow on Twitter: @stpodcasthost Like our Facebook Page: @speakingtonguespod Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJFOPq3j7wGteY-PjcZaMxg Did you enjoy this episode? Support Speaking Tongues on Buy me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/speakingtongues Pledge on going monthly support. Join my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/speakingtonguespodcast Buy my book, Taste Buds Vol 1., on Lulu.com here --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/speaking-tongues/message

Kate Chopin - The Awakening - Episode 3 - Edna Pontellier Battles The Forces Without Only To Meet The Forces Within!   Hi, I'm Christy Shriver and we're here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us.    I'm Garry Shriver and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast.  This is our third episode discussing Kate Chopin's controversial novella, The Awakening.  Week 1 we introduced Chopin, her life and the book itself.  We talked about what a stir it made during her lifetime ultimately resulting in it being forgotten and then rediscovered midway through the 20th century.  Last week, we spent all of our time on the vacation resort island of Grand Isle.  We met Mr. ad Mrs. Pontellier, as well as the two women who represent got Edna, our protagonist, two alternating lifestyles.  Edna Pontellier, we were quick to learn, is not a happily married woman.  Her husband is outwardly kind to her, but readers are told outright that love and mutual respect was never part of the arrangement between these two.  Edna is indulged by Mr. Pontellier, for sure.  He gives her anything she wants in terms of money or material, but in exchange, she is his ornament, an expensive hobby, a pet even- something to be prized- or as Ibsen would describe it- a beautiful doll for his doll house.      The story starts in the summer at the vacation resort town of Grand Isle, Louisiana.  While vacationing on the island, Edna Pontellier experiences what Chopin terms “the awakening”.  She awakens to the understanding that she is not a pet or a doll in the doll house, and just like Nora in the The Doll's House, she decides she really doesn't want to be one anymore.     No, I guess if that were the only thing to this story, we'd have to say, Sorry Kate, Ibsen beat you by about 20 years.  In Ibsen's story, Nora awakens when her husband, Torvald, turns on her over money.      That's a good point, what awakens Edna in this book is not a marital crisis over money.  It is a crisis that awakens her, and it totally informs how she views her marriage, but it is a crisis concerning her husband at all that is the catalyst.   She is awakened to her own humanity by discovering her own sensuality.  I want to highlight that this awakening isn't overtly sexually provoked.  No man comes in and seduces Edna; she does not go off with a wild vacation crew.  She is left vulnerable, if you want to think about it that way, because of loveless marriage, but she is sensually and emotionally provoked through three  very different relationships- all of which affect her physically as well as emotionally.  The first is with a Creole woman, Adele Ratigntole, one with a younger Creole man, Robert LeBrun, and the third with the provocative music of Madame Reisz.  Experiences with these three awaken something in Edna that encourages maybe even forces her to rebel- rebel against her husband, against the culture, against the person she has always been, against the roles she has played, against everything that she has ever known.      The problem is- rebellion only takes you so far.  You may know what you DON'T want, but does that help you understand what you DO?  And this is Edna's problem.  Where do we go from here?     And so, in chapter 17, we return with the Pontellier's to their home in New Orleans.  And, as we have suggested before, New Orleans is not like any other city in America, and it is in these cultural distinctives of Creole life at the turn of the century that Chopin situates our protagonist.  But before we can understand some of the universal and psychological struggles Chopin so carefully sketches for us, we need to understand a little of the culture of this time period and this unusual place.  Garry, tell us a little about this world.  What is so special about Esplanade Street?    Well, one need only Google tourism New Orleans and a description of Esplanade street will be in the first lists of articles you run into.  Let me read the opening sentence from the travel website Neworleans.com    One of the quietest, most scenic and historic streets in New Orleans, Esplanade Avenue is a hidden treasure running through the heart of the city. From its beginning at the foot of the Mississippi River levee to its terminus at the entrance of City Park, Esplanade is a slow pace thoroughfare with quiet ambiance and local charm.  According to this same website, Esplanade Street, during the days of Chopin, functioned as “millionaire row”- which, of course is why the Pontelliers live there.    It actually forms the border between the French Quarter and the less exclusive Faubourg Marigny.  At the turn of the last century it was grand and it was populated by wealthy creoles who were building enormous mansions meant to compete with the mansions of the “Americans” on St. Charles Avenue.    “The Americans”?    Yes, that was the term for the non-Creole white people.  The ones that descended from the British or came into New Orleans from other parts of the US.     Esplanade Street was life at its most grand- there is no suffering like you might find in other parts of New Orleans.  The Pontelliers were wealthy; they were glamorous; these two were living competitively.      The first paragraph of chapter 17 calls the Pontellier mansion dazzling white. And the inside is just as dazzling as the outside. Mrs. Pontellier's silver and crystal were the envy of many women of less generous husbands.  Mr. Pontellier was very proud of this and according to our sassy narrator loved to walk around his house to examine everything.  He “greatly valued his possessions.  They were his and I quote “household gods.”    The Pontelliers had been married for six years, and Edna over this time had adjusted to the culture and obligations of being a woman of the competitive high society of Creole New Orleans.  One such obligation apparently centered around the very serious etiquette of calling cards and house calls.  This is something we're familiar with, btw, since we watch Bridgerton.  It was something we saw in Emma, too.  Garry, talk to us about the very serious social business of calling cards.     Well, this is first and foremost a European custom during this time period. It started with simple cards designed to announce a person's arrival, but as in all things human, it grew and grew into something much larger and subtextual- and of course, with rules.  During the Victorian era, the designs on the cards as well as the etiquette surrounding were elaborate.  A person would leave one's calling card at a friend's house, and by friend meaning a person in your community- you may or may not actually be friends. Dropping off a card was a way to express appreciation, offer condolences or just say hello.  If someone moved into the neighborhood, you were expected to reach out with a card, and a new arrival was expected to do the same to everyone else.      The process would involve putting the card on an elaborate silver tray in the entrance hall.  A tray full of calling cards was like social media for Victorians- you were demonstrating your popularity.    For example, if we were doing this today, we would have a place in the entrance of our home, and we'd make sure the cards of the richest or most popular people we knew were on to.  We would want people who dropped off cards to be impressed by how many other callers we had AND how impressive our friends were. The entire process was dictated by complicated social rules, and as Leonce explains to Edna, to go against these rules could mean social suicide.     It could also mean financial suicide because business always has a human component.  The function of an upper class woman would be to fulfil a very specific social obligation and this involved delivering and accepting these calling cards.  Every woman would have a specific day where she would make it known she was receiving cards, and the other ladies would go around town to pay house calls.  In some cases, a woman might remain in her carriage while her groom would take the card to the door.  During the Regency era like in Jane Austen's day, there was a system of bending down the corner of the card if you were there in person, and not if you were sending it, but by Chopin's day, I'm not sure if that was still a thing.     The main thing was that the card would be dropped off on this special silver tray. If it were a first call, the caller might only leave a card.  But, if you were calling on the prescribed day, the groom would further inquire if the lady of the house were home.  A visit would consist of about twenty minutes of polite conversation.  It was important that if someone called on you, you must reciprocate and call on then on their visiting day.      Well, the Tuesday they get back, Edna leaves the house on her reception day and does not receive any callers- a social no-no.  In fact, as we go through the rest of the book, she never receives callers again. This is an affront to the entire society, and an embarrassment to her husband; it's also just bad for business, as Mr. Pontellier tries to explain to his wayward wife, let's read this exchange.    “Why, my dear, I should think you'd understand by this time that people don't do such things; we've got to observe “les convenances” if we ever expect to get on and keep up with the procession.  If you felt that you had to leave this afternoon, you should have left some suitable explanation for your absences.      One thing I find interesting.  Mr. Pontellier assumes that Mrs. Pontellier is on the same page on wanting the same things as he wants, and what he wants is to keep up with the procession.  They'd been doing this for the last six years, and doing it well.    Another thing I notice is that he doesn't rail at her for skipping out. Mr. Pontellier, unlike her father, even as we progress through the rest of the book, is not hard on her at all.  In fact, he's indulgent.  The problem in the entire book is not that he's been overtly abusive or cruel.  Read the part where he tries to kind of help her fix what he considers to be a serious social blunder.    Page 60    Well, if taken in isolation, this exchange doesn't seem offensive, and I might even have taken sides with Mr. Pontellier if it weren't back to back with this horrid scene of him complaining about his dinner then walking out to spend the rest of the evening at the club where he clearly spends the majority of his time.  You have to wonder what is going on at that club, but beyond that.  Edna is again left in sadness.  “She went and stood at an open window and looked out upon the deep tangle of tea garden below”.  (On an aside, if you've read Chopin's story, the story of an hour, you should recognize the language here and the image of this open window).  Anyway,, Here again we have another image of a caged bird, or a person who is looking out in the world but not feeling a part of it.  “She was seeing herself and finding herself in just sweet half-darkness which met her moods. But the voices were not soothing that came to her from the darkness and the sky above and the stars.  They jeered and sounded mournful notes without promise, devoid even of home.  She turned back into the room and began to walk to and from down its whole length, without stopping, without resting.  She carried in her hands a thin handkerchief, which she tore into ribbons, rolled into a ball, and flung from her.  Once she stopped, and taking off her wedding ring, flung it upon the carpet.  When she saw it there, she stamped her heel upon it, striving to crush it.  But her small boot heel did not make an indenture, not a mark upon the little glittering circlet.  In a sweeping passion she seized a glass vase from the table and flung it upon the tiles of the hearth.  She wanted to destroy something.  The crash and the clatter were what she wanted to hear.”    She's clearly angry…and not just because Mr. Pontellier complained about the food and walked out of the house.  She's angry about everything.     Never mind the fact that we are never told what goes on at this club, but there are several indications in different parts of the book that Mr. Pontellier may be doing other things besides smoking cigars in crowded rooms.  Adele even tells Edna that she disapproves of Mr. Pontellier's club.  She goes on to say, “It's a pity Mr. Pontellier doesn't stay home more in the evenings.  I think you would be more- well, if you don't me my saying it- more united.”      Although I will add, Edna quickly replies, “'Oh dear no!' What should I do if he stayed home? We wouldn't have anything to say to each other.”  - the fact remains that MR. Pontelier does not see any need to nurture any sort of human or intimate relationship with Edna- theirs comes across as a cordial business arrangement, at best, with Edna in the position of employee.      True, and although I don't know if this is the right place to point this out, but in terms of the sexual indiscretions that may or may not be going on when Mr. Pontellier is at the club, there is likely a lot in the culture at large going on under the surface that a person from the outside wouldn't immediately be aware of.   Edna is naïve at first to all that goes on in her Victorian-Creole world.  There just is no such thing as “lofty chastity”  amongst the Creole people, or any people I might add, although Edna initially seems to believe that in spite of all the sexual innuendo in the language, nothing sexual was ever going on.  There are just too many indications otherwise in the story that that is not the case.  The reader can see it, even though Edna cannot.     True, and if you didn't catch it on Grand Isle, in the city, it is more obvious, and the farther along we go in the story, it gets more obvious as well.  Mrs. James Highcamp is one example.  She has married an “American” but uses her daughter as a pretext for cultivating relationships with younger men.  This is so well-known that Mr. Pontellier tells Edna, after seeing her calling card, that the less you have to do with Mrs. Highcamp the better.  But she's not the only example.  Victor basically details an encounter with Edna of being with a prostitute he calls “a beauty” when she comes to visit his mother..ending with the phrase that she wouldn't comprehend such things.  And of course, most obviously there is the character Arobin with whom Edna eventually does get sexually involved, but his reputation has clearly preceded him.       Well, Edna's awakening to all of this would explain part of her anger, but  there is more to Edna's awakening then just Leonce, or the new culture she's a part of, or really any outside factor.     Yes, and it is in the universality of whatever is going on inside of Edna that we find ourselves.  That's what's so great about great literature- the setting can be 120 years ago, but our humanity is still our humanity.       I agree and love that, but let's get back to her setting for a moment. I think it's worth mentioning that the 19th century culture of the Creole people in New Orleans is messy and complicated in its own unique way.  It's fascinating, but for those who are not of the privileged class, life was often a harsh reality.  The world, especially in the South, was problematic for people of mixed race heritage.  So, and this is more true the closer we get to the Civil War and the Jim Crow era, but those who called themselves “white creoles” had a problem because of the large existence of the free people of mixed race ancestry in New Orleans.  There was a strong outside pressure to maintain this illusion of racial purity, but the evidence suggests this simply wasn't reality.  Let me throw out a few numbers to tell you what I'm talking about.  From 1782-1791, the St. Louis Catholic Church in New Orleans recorded 2688 births of mixed race children.  Now that doesn't seem like a large number, but let me throw this number out- that same congregation at that time same only records 40 marriages of black or mixed race people.  Now, I know Catholics are known for having large families, but I'm not sure 20 women can account for 2688 births.      No, something feels a little wrong.  That number suggests another explanation may be in order.      Exactly, and by 1840 that number grows from 2688 to over 20,000 with mixed raced Creoles representing 18% of the total population of residents of New Orleans.  And if that doesn't convince you, here's another indicator, during this same period many many free women of color were acquiring prime real estate in New Orleans under their own names.  These women had houses built and passed estates on to their children, but notice this detail, the children of these mixed-raced women had different last names then their mothers.  We're not talking about small amounts of property here.  By 1860 $15 million dollars worth of property was in the name of children with last names that were not the same as that of their mothers, oh and by the way, a lot of that property was in the neighborhood where Edna rents her pidgeon house just around the corner from Esplanade street- in other words around the corner and walking distance from millionaire row.      Well, that's really interesting, and I guess, does add a new dimension to the subtext in the language for sure.    Well, it does, and it is likely something readers of the day would have certainly understood, more than we do 100 years later when the stakes of identifying as being of mixed raced heritage are not the difference between freedom and slavery.  But beyond just that, it's an example of cultures clashing.  Edna represents an outwardly prudish Puritan culture coming into a society that is French, Spanish and Caribbean- very different thinking.  This is a de-facto multi-cultural world; it's Catholic; it's French-speaking; it's international.  She doesn't understand what she's seeing.  And in that regard, her own situational reality is something she's realizing she is only beginning to understand, and she comes into it all very gradually. She is not, in Adele's words, “One of them.”  In fact, there may have been irony in the narrator in Grand Isle suggesting that Robert LeBrun's relationships every summer were platonic.  His relationship with the girl in Mexico we will see most certainly is not, but nor was his relationship with Mariequeita on Grand Isle, the girl they meet on the day they spent together.      Indeed.  You may be right- perhaps there is a real sense that Edna has been blind, and perhaps not just to her husband but by an entire society that presents itself one way but in reality is something entirely different altogether.  When she visits Adele and her husband at their home, everything seems perfect- of course.  Adele is the perfect woman with this perfect life.  Adele is beautiful.  Her husband adores her.  The Ratignolle's marriage is blissful, in fact to use the narrator's words, “The Ratignolles' understood each other perfectly.  If ever the fusion of two human beings into one has been accomplished on this sphere it was surely in their union.”      Do you think it's sarcasm again?  Was it truly perfect, or just presenting itself to be perfect?     It's really hard to tell.  Maybe they have worked out a great life together.  I think there is a lot in this passage to suggest they are truly happy together.  Edna even expresses that their home is much happier than hers.  She quotes that famous Chinese proverb “Better a dinner of herbs”.  The entire quote is “Better a dinner of herbs than a stalled ox where hate is.”- meaning her house has better food but she thinks of it as a hateful place- whereas this place is the opposite.   Poor thing- she sees her reality for what it is.  I still see a little sarcasm in the narrator's language, but even if Adele is every bit as perfect as she seems, and even if her home is every bit as perfect as it seems, and even if her husband is every bit as perfect as he seems, in the most real of ways, that could all be true and it wouldn't matter.  E    Precisely, The Ratignole's life can be every bit as perfect as it appears. and it wouldn't make Edna want it any more.  Edna leaves Adele's happy home, realizing that even if she could have it it's not the life she wants.  She wouldn't want that world even if Leonce loved her.  It's just not for her.  The problem is, that's as far as she's gotten with her problem solving.  All she knows is what she DOESN'T want.  Her new world is a world of negation.  She wants to quit, and so she does.  She absolutely disregards all her duties to the point that it finally angers Leonce enough to confront her.    “It seems to me the utmost folly for a woman at the head of a household, and the mother of children, to spend in an atelier days which would be better employed contriving for the comfort of her family.”    An atelier is an artist studio.  It' seems Edna has left all the responsibilities she had as a housewife as well as a mother.  And let me add, Edna was never dusting, cooking, or bathing her children.  She has several house keepers and nannies.  But now, she's not even overseeing what others are doing.  Instead, she's devoting herself entirely to painting.  And surprisingly, Leonce doesn't even have a problem with that in and of itself.  Edna tells her husband, “I feel like painting.”  To which he responds, “Then in God's name paint!  But don't let the family go to the devil.  There's Madame Ratignolle, because she keeps up her music, she doesn't let everything else go to chaos.   And she's more of a musician than you are a painter.”  Yikes, that may be honest, but it does come across as a little harsh.  I know.  I think it's kind of a funny line.  To which, Edna has an interesting comeback- it's like she knows it's not about the painting. She says, “It isn't on account of the painting that I let things go.”  He asks her then why she's let everything go, but she has no answer.  She says she just doesn't know.  Garry, do you want to take a stab at what's going on with Edna?   Well, I do want to tread carefully.  What is fascinating about this book is not so much that Chopin is arguing for any specific course of action, or warning against any specific set of behaviors.  She doesn't condemn Edna for anything, not even the affair she will have with Arobin.  Instead of judging, Chopin, to me, seems to be raising questions.  And it is the questions that she raises that are so interesting.  Edna is desperately trying to rewrite the narrative of her life.  There is no question about that.  But that is an artistic endeavor, in some ways like painting or singing.   I guess we can say Chopin is blending her metaphors here.  Edna doesn't want to be a parrot and copy, but she's living her life exactly the way she is painting- it's uncontrolled; it's undisciplined; it's impulsive.  I'd also say, it's rather unoriginal.  There is no doubt that the social roles offered to her are restrictive.  There's no doubt her marriage is a problem, but as we get farther into the story, it's hard to believe that even if all of these problems could be rectified that Edna would be able define a life for herself.  We, as humans, are always more than a reaction to the social and cultural forces in our world- I hate to get back to the word we used last week, but I can't get away from it.  Even under strict social norms, which I might add, Edna is NOT under for her time period- she is after all one of the most privileged humans on planet Earth at that particular time in human history, but even if she were under severe restrictions, she, as a human, still has agency- we all do.  Yes- and to use Chopin's words from chapter 6, Mrs Pontellier was beginning to realize her position as an individual as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world WITHIN and about her.  I think that Edna is like the rest of us in that it's easier to understand and manage the world about us as opposed to the world within.  At least I can SEE the world about me- how can I see within?  How can I understand myself?  And so Edna goes to the world of Madame Reisz having discarded the world of Adele Ratignolle- the world of art, the world of the artist- which is where Edna goes in chapter 21.  I would argue that she sees it as the polar opposite of Adele's reality.  There is the Adele version of being a woman- a totally objectified, sexualized but mothering type of woman= versus this version of womanhood who is basically asexually.  Perhaps Madame Reisz isn't a woman at all- she's an artist.    Except that world, the world of the artist, comes with its own share of difficulties nevermind that it is simply more uncomfortable.  Reisz' house is described as “dingy”.  There's a good deal of smoke and soot.  It's a small apartment.  There's a magnificent piano, but no elegant food or servants or silver trays for calling cards.  She cooks her meals on a gasoline stove herself.  Let me quote here, “it was there also that she ate, keeping her belongings in a rare old buffet, dingy and battered from a hundred years use.”  True, but there is also  the music and when the music filled the room it floated out upon the night, over the housetops, the crescent of the river, losing itself in the silence of the air and made Edna sob. The art is otherworldly, and there is something to that.  Something attractive maybe even metaphysical.  I want to talk about Kate Chopin's choice of music.  I don't think we noted this in episode one, but Chopin was an accomplished pianist.  She played by ear and read music.  She held parties, almost identical to the ones she described Madame Ratignole throwing in the book with dancing and card playing.  Music was a very big deal to Kate Chopin, so when she includes specific music in her writing, she's not just dropping in commonly used songs, she uses artists she likes for specific reasons, and in this novel, the pianist Frederic Chopin is selected intentionally- and not because he has the same last name, although I did check that out- they are not related.  Garry, as a musician yourself, what can you tell us about Frederic Chopin, the Polish composer and pianist?  Well, let me make this comparison, Frederic Chopin's music in his day was the pelvis gyrating Elvis' Rock in Roll of his day.  It was provocative.  19th century attitudes towards this type of harmony driven romantic music would seem hysterical to us.  They were seen as sensual and a destructive force, especially for women.  This may even be Chopin's sassy narrator playing with us again- Frederic Chopin's music is definitely driving sensuality in Edna. To say Kate Chopin is using it ironically is likely taking it too far, but I don't know, maybe not.  This narrator has been ironic before. The main undeniable connection is that Madame Reisz plays Impromptus.  Impromptus are improvisational music.  Frederic Chopin wrote only four of them in his career.  The one Kate selects here is called Fantasie-Impromptu in C minor- it's the only one in a minor key that he ever wrote.  You can pull it up on Spotify and hear it for yourself.   It is full of rhythmical difficulties.  It's very difficult to play. It's quick and full of emotion.  There is banging on low notes at times, thrills and rolling notes going faster and slower at others points.  Frederic Chopin, by the way, was a very temperamental person and in some ways shares a lot of the personality quirks of Madame Reisz. But he did have an interesting philosophy about music that I really like and does connect to our book.  He is recorded to have said this, “words were born of sounds; sounds existed before words…Sounds are used to make music just as words are used to form language.  Thought is expressed through sounds.  And undefined human utterance is mere sound; the art of manipulating sounds is music.”  Interesting, music is thoughts as sounds.  I like the expression “undefined human utterance” especially in regard to Edna because she absolutely cannot get her thoughts out nor is she willing to share then with anyone.  She expresses more than once that her inner world was hers and hers alone. She can't get her thoughts out when she talks to Adele; she can't get them out when she talks to her husband, and she can't get them out even with Madame Reisz which would have been a very safe space for her to express herself.  At the end of chapter 21, she's sobbing at the music and holding in her hands a letter from Robert LeBrun crumpled and damp with tears.   It would have helped her to have found someone to talk to, maybe the Dr. Mandelet that Leonce goes to in chapter 22 for advice about how to help his wife.    What we find out from Leonce's conversation is that Edna has withdrawn from every single person in her world.  She won't even go to her sister's wedding.  What the doctor sees when he goes to dinner at their house is a very outwardly engaging woman but an inwardly withdrawn one.  The Doctor wonders if she's having an affair, but she isn't.    She is, to use the title of the book, One Solitary Soul.  As a human being, there are only so many types of relationships we find meaning in: we have our parents and birth family, we have our intimate relationship, we have our children (if we have any), we have our professional relationships, and we have our social friends- at least one of these has to be working for us.  Edna finds no satisfaction in any of them.  She doesn't have a trusting relationship anywhere.    Yes, every single relationship in her life is basically a burden.  Edna is trying to relieve herself of every single responsibility in the world hoping that getting out of relationships will help her expand her identity.  The problem is getting RID of responsibilities is not really the answer.  To find meaning in this world you must DO something worth doing.  Something that takes strength and energy.  Something you can be proud of.  Of course as a classroom teacher, that is what we do everyday.  It's not helpful to give students high grades or marks for nothing.  It weakens them.  When you give them a difficult task and then they are able to do that task, they grow, they get strong, they learn they are capable of even great responsibilities.  If you want to get strong, you have to take ON responsibilities- you have to practice strength training, Edna goes the opposite way here.      Edna does look for models, and if she wanted a career path, or a professional life like we think of in  our era, Chopin threw in a character that could have served that function.  It's what I see going on in  the chapters about the races.  Edna is actually really good at horse gambling.  She knows horses.  She knows the horse-racing business and knows it well.  The text actually says that she knows more about horse-racing than anyone in New Orleans.  In fact, it's her knowledge about horses that puts her on the radar of the man she eventually has the sexual relationship with, Alcee Arobin.    Let's read the section where we see this relationship, if we want to call it that, take shape.  Arobin had first seen her perform well at the tracks and to use the narrator's words, he admired Edna extravagantly after meeting her at the races with her father.  Mrs. Highcamp is also a completely different version of a feminine ideal, although neither Edna nor the narrator seem to think enough of to give her a first name.  This confused me some when I read this because in my mind, Mrs. James Highcamp would have been this type of a liberated woman that Chopin might want to have Edna admire.  She's clearly sexualy liberated, but beyond that she's worldly, intelligent, slim, tall.  Her daughter is educated, participates in political societies, book clubs, that sort of thing.  But nothing about Mrs. James Highcamp is alluring to Edna at all.  She suffers Mrs. James Highcamp because of her interest in Arobin.   Let's read about these encounters between Arobin and Edna.   Here's the first one  Page 86     So, Arobin becomes fascinated with Edna, in part because she is so smart and different from other women.  At the end of that evening, they dined with the Highcamps. And afterwards Arobin takes Edna home.  The text says this “She wanted something to happen- something, anything, she did not know what.  She regretted that she had not made Arobin stay a half hour to talk over the horses.  She counted the money she had won.  There was nothing else to do, so she went to bed, and tossed there for hours in a sort of monotonous agitation.  And so the relationship with Arobin is born out of boredom.    Yes, the dominant movement in Edna's life is always drifting towards boredom.  Edna wants to rewrite her social script, but she can't seem to define what she wants.  She has trouble speaking, so she has no words to write her own story.  She doesn't want to be a mother; she doesn't want to work except in sunny weather; she has an opportunity with Mrs. Highcamp to get involved with political or literary women; but that doesn't spark her interest.  She could make a name for herself at the races, but the money doesn't motivate her- she's always had it and in some ways doesn't seem to know a world without money.  So, she's going to default into this relationship with Arobin.  I'm going to suggest that she is again playing the part of the parrot.  Messing around with Arobin is just the kind of thing she sees men doing.  It's what Victor does; it may be what her husband does; it is likely what Robert is doing down in Mexico, so she's going to try to mimic male behavior since she hasn't really found a female model she's interested in emulating, and Arobin is an opportunitiy for this.    And yet, she's self-aware enough to not be seduced by Arobin.  The first time he really tries to make a move on her by kissing her hand, this is what she says which I find insightful,  “When she was alone she looked mechanically at the back of her hand which he had kissed so warmly.  Then she leaned her head down on the mantlepiece.  She felt something like a woman who in a moment of passion is betrayed into an act of infidelity, and realizes the significance of the act without being wholly awakened from its glamour.  The thought was passing vaguely through her mind, “what would he think?”  She did not mean her husband; she was thinking of Robert LeBrun.  Her husband seemed to her now like a person whom she had married without love as an excuse.  She lit a candle and went up to her room.  Alcee Arobin was absolutely nothing to her.  Yet his presence, his manners, the warmth of his glances, and above all the touch of his lips upon her hand had acted like a narcotic upon her.  She slept a languorous sleep, interwoven with vanishing dreams.”  Garry, is there a connection between Edna's boredom with her new life and her desire to pursue this relationship with Arobin.   Well, again, Dr. Kate Chopin is playing the psychologist.  Science has absolutely confirmed there is a relationship with boredom and risk-taking behaviors.  In other words, the more bored you find yourself, the more likely you are to do something risky.  It's one reason teenagers are so prone to dangerous behaviors like drugs.  They don't know yet how to cope with personal down time.  They can't manage their own boredom.  Bored people don't know what they want to do.  They also score low on scares that measure self-awareness.  Bored people can't monitor their own moods or understand what they truly want.  And here's another characteristic that should sound familiar in the life of Mrs. Edna Pontellier, notice that last line “vanishing dreams”, Edna is not dreaming.  She's not working at writing a script for her life..structuring a story for herself.  Her dreams and not building anything, they are vanishing.  That's not good.  And it's not that doesn't have illusions, she does, but a dream is not an illusion.  Dreams are what inspire us to do something different. Both a dream and an illusion are unreal, but an illusion will always be an illusion- it has no chance of becoming real; out of dreams new realities are born.  We are not seeing Edna dream.  Her dreams are vanishing.    Which brings us to the place where I want to end with this episode- chapter 26 and Edna's decision to move out of her husband's house.  I mentioned that this book is constructed with the archetypal 3 in mind at every point.  Edna has been living on Esplanade street- the wealthy gilded cage life, and she doesn't want that.  She has visited Madame Reisz's apartment, but she doesn't seem to want that- it's, and I quote, “cheerless and dingy to Edna”.  So what does she do? She moves two steps away from Esplanade Street, to a house Ellen calls, “the pigeon house.”  Pigeons are the oldest domesticated bird in the world.  They never fly far from home- homing pigeons is actually a term. She's building an illusion. Edna is going out of her husband's house to a place around the corner, but is she really building a new life of any kind?  What is this about?   Edna describes it to Madame Reisz, this way,  “I know I shall like it, like the feeling of freedom and independence.”    But is the feeling of freedom and independence the same as actually having freedom and independence?  Well, obviously not.  They are worlds apart.  But Edna lives in feelings.  She works when she feels like it.  She plays with her children when she feels like it, and now she admits to Madame Reisz that she's in love with Robert LeBrun, who by the way is coming back.  And when she finds that out she feels, and I quote “glad and happy to be alive.”  And what does she do after that, she stops at a candy store, buys a box to send to her children who are with their grandparents in the country and she writes a charming letter to her husband.  Her letter was brilliant and brimming with cheerfulness.  I'm sorry, but Edna frustrates the feminist in me.    Well, Edna is struggling for sure.  She can't connect with people.  She can't identify a dream worth pursuing.  She can't write her own story.  There is no doubt that a lot of this has to so with cultural and social forces at work in her world.   These are powerful forces.  However,  it is not the outside forces of her world that will do her in.  Edna is smart.  She's beautiful.  She's charming.  She actually has a lot going for her, especially for a woman during this time period.  If Chopin had wanted to write a story where a woman breaks free and soars, she has a protagonist who is positioned to do that very thing.    But she's in a mess.  And maybe that's why she's so relatable.  Many of us have made messes of our lives.  We have an incredible ability to screw up, but  humans are also incredibly resilient.  Look at Chopin's own life as an example.  In some ways, she's both Adele Ragntingole and Madame Reiz, at different points in her life she'd been both.  She may even have been Mrs. James Highcamp to a lesser degree. Why is Edna struggling here?  Well, humans are incredibly resilient, but you know what else we are- we are social beings.  Let's revisit that original book title, “One Solitary Soul”- it's my experience that no one gets out alone- not even the rich, the beautiful or the smart.  No one gets out alone.    Ah, Edna is strong enough to confront the forces without, but who will help her confront the forces within?  And so next episode, we will see her confront those internal forces.  There are no more female characters to meet; no more male characters either for that matter.  We will see Edna confront Edna alone, and we will see what happens.  Thank you for listening.  If you enjoy our podcast, please share it with a friend, a relative, your classmates, your students.  We only grow when you share.  Also, come visit with us via our social media how to love lit podcast- on Instagram, facebook and our website.  Feel free to ask questions, give us your thoughts, recommend books.  These are all things we love.  Thanks for being with us today.  Peace out.         

Kate Chopin - The Awakening - Episode 1 - Meet The Author, Discover Local Color And Feminism!   I'm Christy Shriver, and we're here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us.    And I'm Garry Shriver, and this is the How to Love lit Podcast.  This episode we begin a journey to a very unique American location to discuss a very American author. Kate Chopin, was born in St Louis but her heritage is more associated with Louisiana than with Missouri as she is from an originally American people group, the Louisianan Creole's.  Christy, I know, you lived a part of your life in Louisiana, and your dad's family is from Louisiana.  As we discuss Kate Chopin and her unusual and ill-received novel The Awakening, I think a great place to start our discussion, especially for those who may not be familiar with American geography, is with the Pelican State itself.   What makes Louisiana so unusual than the rest of the United States, and why does that matter when we read a book like The Awakening.    Well, there are so many things that people think of when the think of Louisiana- Louisianan distinctive include Mardi Gras, crawfish bowls, jazz music, bayous, The French Quarter of New Orleans and its beignets.  The list is cultural distinctives is long.   But, just for a general reference, Louisiana is part of the American South.  Now, it might seem that the states that constitute the South are kind of all the same- and in some respects that's true.  Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, South Carolina, Virginia, and the rest of them, … after all, they all succeeded from the Union during the Civil War, they all had slaves, they all have had to one degree or another racial tension over the last two hundred years, and, of course, to bring it to modern-day, they all are deeply entrenched in a tradition of American football, barbeque, shot guns, sweet tea, the Bible and a general admiration of good manners that include addressing each other as mr. mrs, yes mam and no sir.      Ha!  Yes, that IS the South.  I remember moving down here and being frustrated that I could never find anywhere that served tea without sugar- and when they say sweet tea down here- I'm talking one step away from maple syrup.      I like it!!!       People do and feel strongly about it.  In fact a lot of people have a lot have strong feelings about this part of the United States.  Some love the South; others hate it.  It's a part of the United States that is historical, by American standards, although laughably young compared to other parts of the world,  and controversial- to this very day.     Yes, yet having said that,  once you move here, it doesn't take you long to realize that  The South is not one cohesive unit.  Every state is very different.  Florida was colonized by the Spanish- and has strong ties to places such as Cuba to this day.  Virginia was the seat of government and is still central to the heart of American politics.  The horse-racing people of Kentucky are very different from their cotton-growing neighbors in Mississippi.  There are many many cultural distinctives that are both old and deep.  Which brings us to the great state of Louisiana- Louisiana, especially South Louisiana, in some ways has more in common with the Caribbean islands than it does with other parts of the United States.  My daddy was born in Spring Hill, Louisiana and raised in Bastrop Louisiana which are in North Louisiana- far from the coast but the people of north Louisiana share many commonalities with their Cajun and Creole brothers.  I have early memories of magnolia trees, cypress trees, bayous, shrimp gumbo,  and, of my Uncle Lanny taking us in the middle of the night out with his hound dogs to go coon hunting- as in racoon hunting.      So, for the record, these are things you don't see in other parts of the United States.      Indeed, they don't have bayous and gumbo anywhere else- and although they do have racoons in other places and likely hunt and eat them, I don't know.  The whole government of Louisiana is different and its visible.  They have parishes instead of counties.  The law is based on French law, not British law which affects everything.   It is predominantly Catholic not Protestant, hence Mardi Gras, which is what they call Carnival in Brazil but which we don't celebrate in other part of the US.  But what interests us for this book is the ethnic origins of the people indigenous to the region.     The rural part of the state has been dominated by a group we call Cajuns.  Cajuns are Roman Catholic French Canadians, or at least their descendents were.      They were run out of the Captured French Colony called Acadia in North Eastern Canada- it's actually be termed “the Acadian diaspora”.  Acadia was in the maritime provinces up on the Atlantic side, near the US state of Maine. That part of Canada was very British hence the obvious antagonism.      Well, The word Acadians kind of morphed into Cajuns over the years.  That's one people group.  But we also have another distinctively Louisianan people group  called the Louisiana Creoles.  This group of people ethnically are entirely different group than the Cajuns but also speak French.  Our author today, Kate Chopin was a creole, and she wrote about Lousianan Creole people.  Garry, before we introduce the Mrs. Chopin, local color and her influencial work, The Awakening, let's learn just a little about these remarkable people.  Who are the Creoles of Louisiana?    Well, let me preface by saying, as Kate Chopin would be the first to admit, history is always messy- people marry, intermarry, languages get confused and muddled, so when we talk about distinctives, we are talking about generalities, and if you want take to talk about Creole people the first word that must come to mind is multi-cultural.  There are creole peoples all over the Caribbean.  Haiti is the first country that comes to mind, so we need to be careful as we speak in generalities. But  the first generality you will notice of the Louisianan Creole people shows up in the first chapter of Chopin's book, and that is that they also speak the French language, except for the Louisiana Creoles that can mean two different actual languages.  Today, and the latest stat, I saw was from May of 2020,  1,281,300 identified French as their native tongue- that would be Colonial French, standard French and the speakers of would include both people groups the Cajuns and the Louisianan Creoles.  But what is even more interesting than that is that the language Louisiana Creole is its own distinctive indigenous language, and is not the same as Haitian Creole or Hawaiian Creole or any other form of Creole where you might hear that word.  Meaning, Louisianan Creole although having origins in the French language is not French at all but its own distinct language.   This is confusing because the Cajuns speak a dialect of French that sounds different than the French from France or Quebec, but it's still French and French speakers can understand what they are saying even if it sounds different than the way they might pronounce things.  That's different. Creole is French-based, but has African influences and is literally its own language and French speakers cannot understand it.  Today it's an endangered language, only about 10,000 people speak it, but it is still alive.       Yeah, that wasn't something I understood as a teenager living in Louisiana. I thought Cajun- Creole all meant Lousianan.  Since we lived in North Louisiana, I never met anyone personally who spoke Lousiana Creole.  All the Creole's I came into contact, including Mrs. Devereaux, my French teacher spoke traditional French, which is what they do in Chopin's book too, btw.       Of course, Cajuns and Creole people have a lot in common in terms of religion and even in taste in cuisine, but where they differ tremendously is in ethnicity and also in social class.  The Cajuns are white and from Canada but often rural and historically lower-middle class.  The Creole's are not white, but culturally a part of the urban elite, the ruling class.  They are the first multi-cultural people group on the American continent and deserve a special status for that reason.    Explain that, because that's really interesting.  Today, to be multi-cultural is cool, but 100 years ago when ethnic groups did not intermingle, and being a multi-cultural group that was upper class seems like a huge anomaly.  Although I will say the word “creole” tips you off to the multi-cultural element.  It actually comes from the Portuguese word “crioulo” and the word itself means people who were created.     And again, I do want to point out that this is kind of a very big simplification of a couple of hundred years of history, but in short, the criolos were people who were born in the new World- but mostly of mixed heritage.  Gentlemen farmers, primarily French and Spanish came over to the new world.  A lot of them came  by way of the Caribbean after the slave revolt in Haiti.   They had relationships and often even second families with local people here. Many were Black slaves, others were native Americans, lots were mulattos who also came from the Caribbean.  Unlike mixed raced people from Mississippi or Alabama, Creoles were not slaves.  They were free people.  They were educated.  They spoke French and many rose to high positions of politics, arts and culture. They were the elite, many were slaveholders.  Now, I will say, that most chose to speak Colonial French over Louisiana Creole as they got more educated, also over time as we got closer to the Civil War era being mixed race in and of itself got pretty complicated with the black/white caste-system of the South, which is another story in and of itself.   And as a result, you had creoles who were identifying as white and others who didn't- Chopin's family were white creoles.  But regardless of all that, but in the 1850s and through the life of Chopin, until today, Creoles are a separate people group that identify themselves as such.  They are a proud group of people who worship together, connect socially together, and often build communities around each other. They have societal behaviors and customs that set them apart, and we learn by looking at life through Edna Pontellier's eyes, have a culture that can difficult for an outsider to penetrate, if you marry an insider.    And so enters, Mrs. Kate Chopin, born in 1851 to a mother who was Creole and a father who was a Irish, both Catholic. She was not born in Louisisana, but in the great midwestern city of St. Louis.  St Louis, at the time had a rather large Creole population by virtue of being a city on the Mississippi river- which runs from New Orleans miles north. Her mom's family was old, distinguished and part of what has been termed the “Creole Aristocracy”.  Kate grew up speaking French as a first language, and as many Creole women was raised to be very independent by three generations of women in the household. She received an exceptional education, was interested in what they called “the woman question”.  This will give you an indication of how progressive her family actually was, now brace yourself because this is scandalous….on a trip to New Orleans at the ripe age of 18, Kate learned to smoke.    Oh my, did she smoke behind the high school gym or in the bathroom stalls?    Ha!  Who even knows, but we do know that at age 19 she married the love of her life, another Creole, Oscar Chopin.  Kate and Oscar were very compatible and the years she was married to him have been described as nothing but really happy by all of her biographers that I'm familiar with.  They lived in New Orleans at first and then to Natchitoches parish in the central Louisiana where he owned and operated a general store.  They were married for 12 years, and- this small fact wipes me out- they had five sons and two daughters.    Ha!  That confirms all the Catholic stereotypes of large families.      I know right, that's just a lot…and their lives were, by all accounts, going well until…there's always an until… Oscar suffered the fate of a lot of people around the world even to this day, who live in hot climates.  He caught malaria, and suddenly died.  And there Kate was, alone in the middle of the interior of Louisiana,  with this store and all these kids.  She ran it herself for over a year, but then decided to do what lots of us would do in that situation…she moved back to the hometown of her childhood, St. Louis so she could be near her mother- I didn't mention it before but her father had died in a terrible railroad accident when she was a young child and her brother had died in the Civil War- so basically all of the men that had meant anything to her at all, had all died.  One of Kate's daughters had this to say about that later on when she was an adult talking about her mom, “When I speak of my mother's keen sense of humor and of her habit of looking on the amusing side of everything, I don't want to give the impression of her being joyous, for she was on the contrary rather a sad nature…I think the tragic death of her father early in her life, of her much beloved brothers, the loss of her young husband and her mother, left a stamp of sadness on her which was never lost.”      Goodness, that Is a lot of sadness.    Well, it is and it took a toll.  When she got back to St. Louis, Dr. Kolbenheyer, their obgyn and a family friend talked her into studying some French writers for the sake of  mental health, specifically Maupassant and Zola and take up writing.  She took that advice ..…so at age 38 a widow with six living children, Chopin began her writing career.  A career, sadly that was only going to last five years.  It started great, and she was super popular, but then….she wrote a scandalous book and was cancelled, and I mean totally cancelled.  Five years after the publication of  this candalous book that today we call The Awakening, she had a stroke and died.  At the time of her death, Kate Chopin as a writer, was virtually unknown and uncelebrated.      What do you mean by cancelled? That sounds like a crazy story for a mommy writer.    True, and it is.  When she started  writing, she was super popular.  This kind of reminds me a little of Shirley Jackson, honestly.  She wrote short things for magazines for money.  What made her work popular, at least in part, was because writing about a subculture of America that people found interesting.  Although she was living in St. Louis, her stories were set in Louisiana amongst the Creole people- and people loved it.  This movement in American literature where authors focus on a specific region or people group  has been called “Local Color”, and her ability to showcase the local color of the Creole people led her to success.        Subcultures are so fascinating to me and I'm always amazed at how many different subcultures there are- and I'm not talking about just ethnically. There are endless subcultures on this earth, and most of the time we don't even know what we're looking at.    Oh, for sure.  I think of guitar players as their own subculture- they speak their own language, have their own passions, I wouldn't be surprised if they have their own foods.     HA!  Do I sense a bit of mockery?  But you are right, we do have a little bit of a subculture, but if you think guitarists are a subculture, what do you think of my cousin Sherry who is neck deep into Harley Davidson culture and goes to Sturgis, South Dakota every year.     True, and there are hundreds of thousands of people who participate in that subculture all over the world   And of course, we're talking about hobbies which are not the same as actual ethnic subcultures in any location, understanding and just seeing behind the fence of someone else' experience is the fun.  The idea of living life vicariously through the stories, so to speak, of people who are so radically differently is one of the things I most love about reading.  In the real sense of the term “local color” though, this was an actual movement after the Civil War.  Authors were using settings from different parts of the country and it made the writing feel romantic for people unfamiliar with the setting while actually being fundamentally realistic- I know that's a paradox, but if you think about it it makes sense.  They were works that could only be written from inside the culture by someone who was a part of it- that's what made them realistic.   Chopin was considered a local color author because she was Creole writing about the world of Louisiana Creoles.      Well, apparently it was well received.  She got stories printed first in regional publications but then in national publications.  “The Story of an Hour” which was the only story I had ever read of hers, and I didn't know this, was published in Vogue in 1894.      Very impressive, Houghton Mifflin, the publisher that to this day publishes quite a bit of high school literature textbooks actually published a collection of her stories, titled it Bayou Folk.  So, just in the title, you can tell they are playing up her Louisiana connection.  And that book was a success.  Chopin, who kept notes on how well all of her works were doing, wrote that she had seen 100 press notices about the book.  It was written up in both The Atlantic and the New York Times.  People loved how she used local dialects. They found the stories and I quote “charning and pleasant.”  She was even asked to write an essay on writing for the literary journal Critic- which I found really insightful.     Well, of course, all of these things sound like a woman bound for monetary and critical success- stardom of her day.       And so her trajectory kept ascending.  She was published in the Saturday Evening Post.  Of course that was a big deal.  Everything was moving in the right direction….until.. The Awakening.  The Awakening was too much and she crashed immediately and hard.     You know, when I read these reviews from 1899, it's so interesting how strongly they reacted.  Let me read a few, her local paper, The St Louis Daily Globe-Democrat wrote this, “It is not a healthy book….if it points any particular moral or teaches any lesson the fact is not apparent.” The Chicago Times Herald wrote, “It was not necessary for a writer of so great refinement and poetic grace to enter the over-worked field of sex-fiction.  This is not a pleasant story.”  Here's another one, “its disagreeable glimpses of sensuality are repellent.”      She was not prepared for this.  She did not expect it.  She was expecting people to see it as the American version of some of the things she had been reading in French that had been published in France.  Her treatment of sexuality is what really got her, and maybe if her protagonist had been male she could have gotten away with it.  Actually, I'm pretty sure, she would have gotten away with it, there are other authors who did.  But discussing how women felt about sexuality- and let me say- in case you haven't read the book- this is not a harlequin romance.  She doesn't talk about hot steamy passion in descriptive tones.  She is very polished and shows deference to the WAY things were expressed in her day.  The problem was not in how she was treating sexual content- the problem was that she WAS discussing how women felt about sexuality and this just was too realistic.  People weren't and maybe we still aren't, ready to be vulnerable about how we feel about intimacy.      You know, I tell students all the time that in American politics, sexual issues have always been used as a wedge issue to define people's position as good or bad people.  That has not changed in the American political scene in 200 years and is something our European and Asian friends have mocked us about for just as long.  We are a people committed to moralizing, even to this day.  For a long time, it was cloaked in religion, but now, hyperbolic moralizing, although not done in the name of a faith is still a favorite American pastime.      Well, honestly, I guess that's also been true for the arts as well.  But honestly, greatr art is never moralizing.  And Chopin knew that.  Furthermore, if anyone had read that essay Chopin printed about her writing that I referenced, they would have seen that Chopin, by design, does NOT moralize in hers.  She does not condemn or judge.  She has no interest in telling us how we should or shouldn't behave.  She sees the role of the artist, and clearly stated as much,  and the role of fiction as in demonstrating how we genuinely ARE as human beings.  It is a role of showcasing the human experience.  It is meant to help us understand ourselves.  What she does in her writing by using a culture that is unfamiliar to us, is allow us a safer space from which we can pull back the veil that IS our experience, so we can see ourselves.  Let me quote her from that essay and here she's talking about the Creole people of Louisiana,    “Among these people are to be found an earnestness in the acquirement and dissemination of book-learning, a clinging to the past and conventional standards, an almost Creolean sensitiveness to criticism and a singular ignorance of, or disregard for, the value of the highest art forms. There is a very, very big world lying not wholly in northern Indiana, nor does it lie at the antipodes, either. It is human existence in its subtle, complex, true meaning, stripped of the veil with which ethical and conventional standards have draped it.”  Well, regardless of how she wanted to come across, apparently, she struck a nerve people didn't want struck.  The Awakening unsettled America.  The book was published in April of 1899, by August critics were destroying it, and again I'll use the reviewers words,  it had been deemed “morbid and unwholesome” and was reproached on a national stage.  She was scorned publicly.  When she submitted a new short story to the Atlantic “Ti Demon” in November after the publication of The Awakening it was returned and rejected.    Her own publisher, the one who had published the controversial book decided to “shorten is list of authors”- and they dropped her.  Of course to be fair, they claimed that decision had nothing to do with the problems with the reception of The Awakening.    I'm sure that it didn't.  Chopin was obviously crushed.  She would only write seven more stories over the next five years.  In 1904 when she died of a stroke, she was basically a forgotten writer.  And likely would have remained forgotten until, ironically the French discovered the novel in 1952.  A writer by the name of Cyrille Arnavon translated it into French under the title Edna with a 22 page introduction essay called it a neglected masterpiece.  What he liked about it had nothing to do with “local color” or creole people or anything Americana.  He saw in it what we see in it today- psychological analysis.      So fascinating, this is the 1950s; this is exactly the time period psychology is shifting from Freudian interpretations of Chopin's' day into behaviorism and eventually to humanistic psychology.      Why does this matter?    With Freud everything is secret and we're ruled by unseen forces we don't understand without psychoanalysis.  Chopin's book came out when this was how we were looking at the world.  After him came Skinner's behaviorism which said everything can be reduced to rewards and punishments.   Humanistic psychology is this third way of looking at things.  It's extremely empathetic.  Names like Karl Rogers were looking at life with the idea that it's just plain difficult to be a human, and we need to understand this complexity.  They would like books that are not all black/white thinking or moralistic.  This is what's crazy to me about Chopin.  She wrote in the days of Freud, but she was so far ahead of her time psychologically; nobody would get her for another 60 years- literally two entire movements later in the field of psychology.      Well, when they did get her, they really got her.  In 1969 a Norwegian critic Per Seyersted brought her out into the open in a big way.  This is what he said, “ Chopin, and I quote “broke new ground in American literature. She was the first woman writer in her country to accept passion as a legitimate subject for serious, outspoken fiction. Revolting against tradition and authority; with a daring which we can hardy fathom today; with an uncompromising honesty and no trace of sensationalism, she undertook to give the unsparing truth about woman's submerged life. She was something of a pioneer in the amoral treatment of sexuality, of divorce, and of woman's urge for an existential authenticity. She is in many respects a modern writer, particularly in her awareness of the complexities of truth and the complications of freedom.”    Finally people were understanding what she was trying to do.  That's exactly what she wanted to show- the complexity of being human.  Here's another Chopin quote whole talking about the role of a writer, “Thou shalt not preach; “thou shalt not instruct thy neighbor”.  Or as her great- grandmother Carleville, who was extremely influencial in her life, used to tell her, Kate's grandmother who raised her was known for saying this “One may know a great deal about people without judging them.  God does that.”    Well, she was immediately resurrected.  Today she is considered one of America's premiere writers.    Well, it also didn't hurt her reputation that she was being discovered in Europe at the exact same time, the women's movement was taking off in the United States and finding an unsung feminist writer was very popular.     Yeah, I thought she WAS a feminist writer, but you don't see her as that.    I really don't, and that's not to say there isn't any feminism in the book, because obviously, it's about life as a woman at the turn of the century.  Virginia Wolfe famouslty argued in her essay A Room of One's Own that no one knew what women were thinking and feeling in the 17th century because they weren't writing.  Well, you can't say that about Chopin.  She was absolutely writing about what women were thinking and feeling, it just took 60 years for the world to allow her to share it.        If we want to talk the particulars about The Awakening, which of course we do, we have a female protagonist.  I'm not going to call her a hero because I don't find anything heroic about her.  But it's very very honest characterization of what women feel, and honestly, perhaps it's what a lot of people feel- both men and women when they live, as we all do, within cultures of high expectations.      Isn't writing about standing up to cultural norms and societal expectations kind of cliché?  I'm surprised you find it interesting in this situation.     Well, it for sure can be.  It's what a lot of teenage angst poetry is about.  But Chopin's book is a lot more complex than just a denouncement on social expectations of women's roles.  In some ways, that's just the setting.  This particular woman, Edna, is for sure, unhappyily objectified by a husband.  That part is obvious.  But, Chopin isn't necessarily moralizing against this or anything else.  In the opening encounter between husband and wife, we see the wife being objectified, but we also see that they have worked out some deal.  She has a very privileged life.  It's not a life between two people who have emotional intimacy, for sure.  These two clearly don't.  Edna asks if her husband plans on showing up for dinner.  He basically sayd, I don't know- I may; I may not.  It doesn't appear Edna could care less one way or another and Chopin isn't condemning them; she is observing.  This are the deals people are working out in the world.  She makes other observations in regard to Edna and her relationship with her children.  She loves her children; sort of; but it's certainly not the motherly and passionate devotion most mothers feel towards their kids.  It's definitely not the self-denying ideal, we see expressed through a different character in the book.  Again, Chopin is not endorsing nor condemning.  She's observing.  There's no doubt, Chopin herself was progressive.  She was raised in a house of dominant women.  She herself was a head of household.  She was educated.  She made money, but she had healthy relationships with the men in her life.  She is not a man-hater, that I can tell.  She never remarried but there is reason to believe she had at least one  other significant male relationship after her husband's death.  So, portraying her as a woman who influenced feminism in any kind of deliberate way, I don't think is something that she intended, nor was it something that happened.  She was cancelled.    I understand that, it's just interesting that today, we think of her first and foremost as a feminist writer in large part because she had sexual content in her books.  Although, as I think about the progressive women in the 1890s, what we know about them from history is that most were not really be fans of indiscriminate sex.     Oh my, we're getting edgy here, but I have to ask.  Why do you say that?    You have to understand this is before birth control.  Sexual relationships for women meant running the very real risk of generating children which was often a life-risking ordeal.  Kate herself had gone through that seven times in twelve years.  Women were spending half of their lives pregnant.  Many progressive women in this time period were not fighting for the freedom to have sex, they were fighting for the right to NOT have it.  They wanted the right to say no.  The goal of Self ownership was central to nineteenth century feminism.  Woman's rights were about possessing a fully realized human identity.  We think of this today in terms of sexual freedom but that's the arrogance of the presence kicking in.  Obviously human sexuality is a core part of the human experience and that's likely why it's central to Chopin's story, but there are other aspects of person hood.  Women, especially educated ones, were interested in navigating a sense of place in the community and the universe at large- and that involves all kinds of things- hard things like love, connections, maternity.    Exactly, and that's why Edna is so complicated.  Being a human is difficult.   Navigating  “the woman's sphere”, to use the expression of  the notable Chopin scholar Sandra Gilbert is complicated.  And so, we all find ourselves, one way or another in cages- some of our own making, some of the makings of our community, our religion, our culture, our own personalities- whatever it is.  And that is the opening of our story.  The Awakening starts with a woman in a cage.  This is not to say that men do not experience cages or awakenigs- they absolutely do, but Chopin is a woman and will speak from inside the world of women.  She will drop a woman named Edna, a middle child Presbyterian English speaking girl from Kentucky, into a French speaking Catholic world of elite Creole women.  Edna is flawed, but not awful.  She's flawed in the sense that we are all flawed.  This woman acts out- in the way that many of us have acted out- often as children, but for some of us, we don't experience this desire for agency until later in life.  For Edna it comes at the age of 26 and when it does- she will scandalize her world the way acting out always does.  She finds herself in a cage and decides she wants out...but then what…where do you go from there.  Let's read how Chopin sets this up in the first paragraph of her story.    A green and yellow parrot, which hung in a cage outside the door, kept repeating over and over:  “Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Sapristi! That's all right!”  He could speak a little Spanish, and also a language which nobody understood, unless it was the mocking-bird that hung on the other side of the door, whistling his fluty notes out upon the breeze with maddening persistence.  Mr. Pontellier, unable to read his newspaper with any degree of comfort, arose with an expression and an exclamation of disgust.  He walked down the gallery and across the narrow “bridges” which connected the Lebrun cottages one with the other. He had been seated before the door of the main house. The parrot and the mocking-bird were the property of Madame Lebrun, and they had the right to make all the noise they wished. Mr. Pontellier had the privilege of quitting their society when they ceased to be entertaining.    Christy, does she give the entire story away in the beginning?    She's doing something.  She opens with a bird- a parrot. We will talk more about this later, but birds are a big deal in this book.  But why a parrot- what do parrots do- well they imitate.  They talk.  This parrot is in a cage repeating something an English reader may not understand.      What does that phrase mean?    It means Go away! Go away!  For God's sake!  The bird is telling everyone to go away, and Mr. Pontellier pretty much ignores the bird and does actually go away.  The bird speaks a little Spanish but also a language no one else understands.  There's a lot of intentionality here.  This book begins with a bird in a cage and the book ends with a bird, but I won't tell you how we find that bird yet.       These 19th century writers were always using symbols on purpose.       They really do.  And if this one is our protagonist- what we can see is that she's beautiful, she's in a cage, and although she can talk, she cannot articulate something that can be heard properly or understood.      And so that is our starting point.    I think it is.  Next episode, we will join Edna and explore this beautiful place, Grand Isle- the site, and if the title of the book hasn't given it away yet, I will, of her Awakening.  We will watch Edna awaken- but then, we know from our visit with Camus…that is only step one.  Now what.    Indeed…now what.  Well, thank you for spending time with us today.  We hope you have enjoyed meeting Kate Chopin and jumping into the first paragraph of her lost but rediscovered American masterpiece, The Awakening.  And if you did, please support us by sharing this episode with a firend, either by text, by twitter, Instagram or email.  That's how we grow.  Also, if you have a favorite book, you'd like us to discuss, you are always invited to connect with us, again via all the ways Modern world people do.    Peace out!                 

Our story begins on the island of Martinique with a wealthy plantation owner, Joseph Tascher de la Pagerie, his sister Desiree, and the Governor turned Marquis de Beauharnais. Find out how the middle daughter Rose had fortune and fate change her life as she is sent to France for an advantageous marriage. Everyone thinks the Creoles are the messy ones, until this fated marriage happens.

Continuing with the theme of la francophonie and indenture, I switch things up this episode and chat about my experience learning Guadeloupean Creole as a creole-speaker during the fall term. Guadeloupe continues to be an Overseas Department of France, and out of the francophone Caribbean, the island received the largest number of people indentured from South Asia. The francophone Caribbean was a region I didn't know much about. However, through my study, I've come to learn how much we share as Caribbean people. Byen mèsi a prof chéri an-mwen! Enjoy! Don't forget to subscribe, follow us on instagram (@DiasporicChildrenofIndenture), and turn on notifications! And, while you're at it, check out the digital humanities site (link in ig bio)! I learned Guadeloupean Creole from French with the textbook Le Créole Sans Peine from Le Méthode Assimil. Poullet, Hector et Telchid, Sylviane. Le Créole Sans Peine (Guadeloupéen). Assimil, 1990. And here's a dictionary: Pinalie, Pierre. Dictionnaire élémentaire français-créole. L'Harmattan, 2009. Podcast Music: "A Break in the Clouds" by PNFA (2010)

LD has a wide ranging discussion with Dr. Joyce Jackson the newly elect Chair of the LSU Department of Geography and Anthropology. Dr. Jackson describes what it was like in undergraduate and graduate school at LSU during the early seventies, the problems she faces as the first female Chair and person of color and her vision for the future. Great history lesson on growing up in the south, studying african cultures as well as history of New Orleans, Creoles, Indians and Mardi Gras (Carnivale) Indians along with LD's unique take on everything. Click here to comment and for detailed show notes, transcript, pictures and videos.

To be multilingual is to be utterly uninteresting; most of the world's population is multilingual. Interesting, however, is what happens when multilingualism leads to language contact. The resulting innovations can be anything from a mere exchange of words to a shift in grammar or to the birth of an entirely new language — and how to define these innovations is a question linguists are still trying to answer. In this episode, Aaron talks with Philipp Krämer, a professor of linguistics at the Free University of Berlin. They talk about how languages like Kiezdeutsch are classified, the contact situations of creoles and multiethnolects, and the many crucial ingredients needed for a dialect so rich as Kiezdeutsch to develop.

There's a new language class on offer at Harvard. Gullah Geechee is a creole language developed by enslaved Africans and still spoken today. As far as anyone knows, it's the first time it's been taught anywhere. Sunn M'Cheaux — native speaker turned Harvard instructor — tells his story and the story of Gullah Geechee, a language that is as African as it is American. Music by Blue Dot Sessions, Podington Bear and Ranky Tanky. Photo courtesy Sunn M'Cheaux. Read a transcript of this episode here.

Joshua Simon's The Ideology of the Creole Revolution: Imperialism and Independence in American and Latin American Political Thought published by Cambridge University Press in 2017, compares the political thought of three Creole revolutionary leaders: Alexander Hamilton, Simón Bolívar and Lucas Alamán. By doing so, Simon brings together the intellectual histories of the US American Revolution and the Spanish American Revolutions of Mexico, and Gran Colombia (Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Panamá). Unlike previous scholars, Simon finds a set of striking commonalities that unites the histories of the Americas as a whole. In particular, he argues, the institutional context in which American independence movements unfolded profoundly shaped and influenced the ideologies that these intellectual leaders expounded. Although these Creole men were influenced by very different intellectual traditions, they embraced a contradictory ideology that incorporated anti-imperialist and imperialist positions at the same time. This “anti-imperial imperialism” shaped Creoles justifications to political autonomy vis-à-vis European imperial powers, the constitutional mechanisms they designed in their recently independent countries, and ultimately, the imperial policies that they put in place against indigenous and Afro-descendent population. From this new approach emerges a puzzle that Simon discusses at the end of our interview and that has important repercussions for the present: if the Americas were so similar at the moment of independence, why did the United States achieve greater economic prosperity and more stable political institutions while Latin America did not? Lisette Varón-Carvajal is a PhD student at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. You can tweet her and suggest books at @LisetteVaron